Family of Stone
by Elusith
Summary: Born in Iwa and raised in the sparks that would herald the Second Shinobi War, Yuuyake was a girl whose sole goal was to stay alive in the chaos that would soon follow. She'd have friends, she'd have enemies and she'd have explosive glory, but she'd really rather have a desk job. (OC/SI fic with a skewed sense of ethics and huge sense of self-preservation.)
1. Prologue

**Hello all, Elusith here.**

**Have been running around for a long long time and decided that I wanna try my hand at writing again. Picked up a few fics that I thought was really good, mostly OC-SI fics and they had inspired me quite abit. So I just want to try my hand at writing a coherent story again. Had this idea popped up in my head and just decided that I wanna give it a shot, so here we go, a Naruto OC/SI fic. I hope that my writing skill had stayed a little less rusty.**

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**I do not own Naruto, only this story and its OCs. New OCs may be added as the fic progresses.**

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Her name is Yuuyake. She had no last name, though that was normal for people where she first came from.

Thing was, she wasn't always 'Yuuyake', before she was 'Yuuyake', she was 'someone else'. Nit like a spy, but something like a reincarnation?

She couldn't really remember, then again, she was just a child. Things like reincarnation did not actually gift people with intelligence from the very start, as there was no way that a child would be able to comprehend the thoughts of a complex mind. Especially when the logic and cognitive functions of a child had yet to fully develop.

But she could remember things.

Her first significant memory as a child was one of happiness and fulfilment, she had a mother and an elder brother. No doubt she had caused plenty of trouble for them as soon as she could crawl. It was a peaceful and happy memory for her.

In stark contrast, her second piece of memory was much more colourful, louder and warmer. She heard people screaming and things falling and breaking.

It sounded funny for some reason, so she giggled.

Then a face loomed over her. She was one (maybe two?) at the time, and she had no way of telling friend or foe. But when she saw that swirly pattern with a pointy end on the metal plate the man wore on his forehead, somehow her kind associated with the word 'good'.

She didn't really know why, so she continued giggling.

The face softened, then the man suddenly straightened and turned around. She saw something black and shiny emerge from his back, coated in red liquid and spraying her with quite a bit of it.

She would be a little irked out years after when she remembered that she did this, but as a child? It was a policy to put anything within reach into her mouth. It had caused her mother no end of a headache, but she did it anyway.

So she raised her hand coated in that red stuff and stuffed it into her mouth. It tasted salty, with a bit of something else. It kind of reminded her of the soup her mother would make for her.

Soup was nice. That means this was nice. She giggled her approval.

Another face looked over her. She noticed that this time, the picture on the metal plate was different. Then she noticed that his face was different. No, not just different, funnier.

It looked so blocky. Like the stone bricks her brother would use to distract her.

It was funny.

The man smiled when she laughed and reached down with a meaty hand to scoop her up. She was a little alarmed when that happened, but then the man pressed her to his chest. Kind of like how mother did. That means he was safe, right.

Safe and warm, she noted. Then she realised how tired that made her. Well, nothing that she could do about it. When naptime comes, no matter how much she fought it, she always lost.

Might as well go with the flow and sleep.

No one one ever fights the Nap Monster.

* * *

Her next memory was of light and warmth. And voices, lots of them. When she opened her eyes, she saw a brown ceiling that she had never seen before, and oil lamps hanging from a light grey wall.

This was the room in which she would spend quite a few months in. It wasn't exactly spacious, and there was no padding on the floor when she crawled around. Not to mention how noisy it was.

Yuuyake, the name was given to her by the matron of this place, scowled in annoyance at the cries of the other babies. She never cried herself, and could not fathom why mother always seemed so sad when she never cried, even when she stubbed her toe or bonked her head against something.

She did tear up though, that might have been why.

Moteki, a blonde middle-aged woman taking care of her, liked her though. She was really well-behaved, and Moteki gave her plenty of milk and the occasional candy whenever she came around. Candy was nice. And Moteki seemed to be so happy wherever Yuuyake giggled whenever she saw her. Pity she couldn't really understand what Moteki was saying though.

She did wonder why she never saw mother or brother again whenever she was alone.

It felt like forever, but one day, something just clicked in her. An instinct to not crawl, but walk on two legs. Yuuyake immediately tried to stand, but fell back down on her bottom. That hurt. She sniffled a bit, but tried again.

And again.

And again.

Then Moteki came, placed her on a chair and fed her some sort of broth, before putting her to bed. Yuuyake was a little cross that she was interrupted in the middle of something important, but decided against throwing a tantrum. Something told her that it was childish.

So she slept, and continued the next day. And the day after. She did not know how long it took, but one day, she finally got it right and was waddling about just nicely. Yuuyake knew that this was a far cry from how she was to do it (she didn't really get how she knew it) but it felt much better than crawling on the floor.

Moteki squealed with delight when she saw Yuuyake waddling about on two legs though, and was quick to bring her out for a brisk walk. It was her first time out of the room, and Yuuyake watched everything with fascination. Then they left a door and Yuuyake saw a sea of grey before her.

Great buildings rose into the sky, carved from the grey stone of the mountainside around them.

It was breathtaking. Yuuyake looked about in wonder. Well, as much wonder as she could. She was getting tired, sort of.

A slight 'thud' behind them made Yuuyake look back. It was a boy, red hair, looks to be in his teens? He chattered happily with Moteki, speaking in that language that sounded so foreign yet so familiar to her ears. But as she couldn't really tell what they were saying, she soon became disinterested and looked away, glancing at the city behind her. Now that she looked at it, it felt somewhat familiar. Where had she seen this before?

Her pondering soon came to an end, however, when she was suddenly lifted off the ground by her excitable matron. Letting out a yelp of surprise and protest at the sudden action, she soon found herself face to face with the boy, who gave her a toothy smile as he looked at her.

He had beautiful green eyes, she noted. Then she saw something else that was much, much more interesting. She reached out with a scrawny hand and touched the metal plate on the boy's forehead. The boy stayed dutifully in place to let her do it, but his grin only got bigger as he talked to Moteki excitedly. What about? Yuuyake did not know.

Besides, she was much more interested in the emblem engraved into the metal plate at the moment.

_Iwa_. She recalled faintly.

Somehow, she had a sinking feeling of dread when she remembered that.

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**Yeah, I hope that I got a proper hand at writing left in me. Still pining for improvements though. Regardless, little Yuuyake is going to be more than a little unhinged when things really get going. I just hope that I can get that part of her down when I begin moving forward with the fic. Furthermore, I know that this is a little early into the fic, but I hope that i'd be able to get some pointers as to writing, being a returning fic writer and all, so reviews and feedback will be deeply appreciated!**

**Nonetheless, I thank you for reading and I hope that I will be able to continue this for a long, long time now.**

**Regards,**  
**Elusith**


	2. Childhood Days I

Roshi sighed as he watched the group of impressionable young kids who had just been inducted into the War Institution. He would really rather not be here, if he was to be honest. There were other things he would much rather be doing than standing here among his other jounin as they evaluated the children who had been recruited.

Many were from the clanless families out there, then there were those who were from the only clan in Iwa, the Kamizuru clan, the supposed 'royalty' of Iwa, Roshi suppressed a snort at that thought despite being a member of the clan, albeit a branch member himself. The remaining few were probably the poor few foundlings who had been recruited, forcefully or otherwise, from the local orphanages.

Not that he would care about it. In fact, he would not have been here if his ward was not among the children here today. Roshi narrowed his eyes as he looked out for the boy Han, spotting the child out there among the crowd easily, the boy's height easily making him stand out when he stood next to the other midgets.

Not that Roshi had any soft spot for the child. Oh, he had disliked the circumstances that the boy had been thrust into, but had no love for the child despite being in the same situation as the boy himself.

Being a Jinchuuriki had cultivated him into a rather cynical and bland person, it would seem.

How long had it been? he wondered. Ten years ago? He had been seven when he was chosen to be the host for the Yonbi, not knowing how it would have changed his life once he had accepted the honor. His fellow shinobi and family had not denounced him or anything, but they had been extremely wary of him and were unwilling to interact with him for any extended period of time. In the end, the only few consistent interactions he had had were with those shinobis from the sealing team and the Tsuchikage himself. Considering that the former were a bunch of paranoid ninjas and the latter was an extremely narrow-minded old man, there was small wonder that he had grown to be the bitter and antisocial youth that he was.

He was already making plans to leave the village so that he could journey around the country, except that the last Jinchuuriki for the Gobi had to go and bite the dust, leaving them to have to implant the tailed beast into another young boy. Han had been a very sullen young boy, but dutiful and obedient to a fault. Perhaps that was why he was chosen to be the next host, that and the honor it would have brought his family at the expense of the prejudice he would have to endure as a Jinchuuriki.

That was why Roshi had agreed to look after the young boy, postponing his plans to travel until the other host was old enough to fend for himself, just as Han's predecessor had done for him. It was the least he could do. Jinchuurikis should stick together, after all.

"This year's batch looks rather promising." One of the jounin beside him commented to his partner. Roshi made no effort to attempt to join in, probably because he knew that the jounins would probably shut up the moment they realised he was paying attention to their conversation.

"I heard that one of the recruiters had put forth eight kids from the same orphanage as potential candidates for the Jounin Track."

Roshi's eyes widened in surprise. Eight in a single batch? That was a record breaking number. Each year, the number of shinobi from orphanages who were actually considered for the Jounin Track was less than that number in total across _all_ the orphanages.

"Seriously? They all passed the 'question'?"

"Yeah. All eight of them from the same establishment."

Impressive. Roshi nodded absentmindedly. When it came to foundlings, Iwa had a standing policy that so long as they portray the necessary qualities, they were to be drafted into the Iwa War Institution to be trained as shinobis. The 'question' however, was a method that was used to separate the wheat from the chaff at an early stage.

It differs each time, normally it was something along the lines of 'Are you willing to die for Iwagakure?', though Roshi had heard that other recruiters had changed up the question from time to time. Regardless, that 'question' was used to determine if the child possess the mindset that all Iwa Jounin should possess: Loyalty to the Country, the most important value that was even espoused within the ideal of Iwa, the Unity of Stone.

Still, to think that eight from the same orphanage would possess the same mindset, that was too much to be a coincidence, wasn't it?

"Any chance that the results were rigged?" The other Jounin asked, echoing Roshi's thoughts.

"Nope, the recruiter and the caretakers of that establishment were checked and questioned, and turns out that they were not the ones responsible for that whole fiasco."

"Oh, who is it that's responsible."

"That girl down there, third column from the right, fourth down."

Roshi looked at the kid in question, taking in the details of a young petite girl with messy blond hair and in what was probably second hand clothes. This was the kid?

"Turns out she managed to convince the rest of the kids to answer in the affirmative." The first jounin continued, chuckling as he added, "though she might find trying to keep her influence on the others intact a mite difficult now."

"Ah yes," the other Jounin conceded, "the Tsuchikage's son is in this batch too."

Kitsuchi was? Roshi grimaced, much as he disliked that little loudmouthed brat, that kid was as assertive as his father. That girl would stand no chance against him.

Still, Roshi could not help but notice that the child looked rather different than the other kids. Not in physical appearance, but there was just something about her that made her stand out as much as Han did.

Shaking his head, Roshi chalked it up to his imagination. Besides, there was a chance that she would not survive the course. His interest fading, he resumed his original line of thought as he waited for the ceremony to end.

The first month went about as well, or bad, as he would expect. Han was given a wide berth by the other students who were either intimidated by his size, or were warned to not go near him by their families. The boy had seemed a little dejected by this turn of events but had remained optimistic in his silent, stoic way.

The second month however, was vastly different. It was the day that Han's class had been scheduled for a survival lesson, where they had to hunt and kill their own game and cook it for their own meal. It was an exercise that was meant to desensitize the children and Roshi had expected that Han would return no different than before.

He had not expected the boy to be _smiling_ when he returned from the exercise. It wasn't outright grinning, but it was evident that the child was in a good mood.

"What happened today, boy?" Roshi asked from his seat in the kitchen of their modest four room apartment.

"I made some friends."

What? Seriously? "Who?"

"Yuuyake, Inoue and Gari. And Kitsuchi-san too once he had decided he wanted some of our stew."

Four kids? That was a lot of them, Roshi reflected. "I see," He said finally as he rested his hands on the table, "tell me about them."

Turns out that for the exercise, they were told to form groups of four before they were to be released into the mountain range to hunt their game. Han was apparently waiting to be slotted into whatever unfortunate three man group that was left when he was sought out by this Yuuyake girl. Together, they had met their quota and returned to cook their meal when the other groups had returned. Evidently, some of the groups had failed to catch any game at all (Roshi had been surprised when he heard that Kitsuchi's group was one of them) and Han's group had shared their leftovers with the other hungry kids.

"Mostly because Yuuyake accidentally cooked too much rabbit stew." Han finished. He then scrunched up his face in a frown. "Though as much as they are nice people, Yuuyake and Gari are a little weird."

Now that was straightforward, Roshi noted as he reminded himself to help get rid of that bad habit of Han's. Straightforwardness was not a trait a shinobi should possess. Still…

"Weird, how?" Many shinobi had their own eccentricities, but for a Jinchuuriki to call them weird… this he had got to hear.

"When Ichidai-sensei told us to kill the rabbits we had caught, Yuuyake just did it without hesitation, and Gari was smiling when he helped skin it."

Guess that was why they were unafraid of Han, Roshi grinned, from the sound of it, they were a couple of little psychopaths. "Don't worry about it," he reassured Han, "go wash up, we can continue later."

At least he had friends. Roshi reflected bitterly, and maybe they would be crazy enough to stick around him when he told them the truth about himself. Roshi had known one such idiot that had stuck with him when the rest of his genin platoon shunned him because of his status as a host. That idiot blew himself up on one of the missions later on, and while Roshi would say good riddance to him, he would admit that the world had felt a little too quiet once he had passed.

Still, it would not hurt to make sure that the company Han keeps would not endanger him.

The next day found Roshi in the Iwa War Institution facing down his ward's class sensei across a table, a giant of a man by the name of Ichidai, who looked as if he would be much more at home as the daimyo's bodyguard than he would as a shinobi with that size he was. Still, it was fairly amusing to the Yonbi Jinchuuriki how the man who looked as if he could snap him in half with just pure taijutsu looked at Roshi with such wariness and fear.

"So, how can I help you, Roshi-san?" The bearded giant asked.

"I came to ask about Han." He replied simply, Ichidai nodded understandingly as he gestured for the Jinchuuriki to take a seat, even as he sat down on the opposite side of the table.

"Right, what do you want to know?" Ichidai asked warily, still on guard against the Jinchuuriki. "If it would be about his training, I can assure you that he is keeping up rather nicely."

"No, not about his training." Roshi shook his head, "I want to know about the company he keeps."

"Ah." Ichidai blinked, probably because he was perplexed at the request. It would seem that he was one of those shinobis who believed that the Jinchuurikis were as antisocial and inhumane as the beasts within them. Placing a hand on his chin in contemplation, the sensei mused, "well, there was a bunch of children who I had seen that was staying around the Jinchuuriki boy," Roshi suppressed a grimace at his tone, "one of them was even the Tsuchikage's kid! Though I believe that he was merely trying to get Han's support."

Impossible. Roshi reflected as soon as he heard that, Kitsuchi was more of a soldier than a politician, especially considering the way Oonoki had raised his kid. Still, gossiping about the Tsuchikage's brat was not his goal here today. "Can I have a look at their profiles please?"

"Very well," Ichidai nodded as he turned around to the wall of cupboards behind him, opening one and retrieving a stack of papers. Pulling out the relevant ones and passing them along to Roshi. "Here you go."

Accepting the documents, Roshi gave them a quick once over, taking note of their names and the assessment given to them by the instructors, only stopping when his eyes met the photo of the blond girl.

This must be the one that approached Han.

Yuuyake, clanless orphan, seven years old this year. Reports had deemed her fit for the jounin track based on the amount of influence she had somehow exerted over a group of orphans that were around her age. It then went on to describe her track record in the last two months, which was pretty uninteresting except for the fact that she had somehow established contact with the Tsuchikage's kid and the Gobi Jinchuuriki.

Still, there was not as much information as he would have liked about her. Roshi could not place it, but there was just something about the girl that had seemed off even now, when he was looking at her photo.

"Thank you, Ichidai-san." Roshi nodded as he passed the documents back. The other jounin did not reply immediately, something that Roshi paid no mind to as he stood up and left the room, his mind already moving to his next line of action.

Having already memorized Han's timetable, it barely required any effort for him to navigate the maze that was the War Institution's corridors to reach the current location that his ward was having a lesson at.

It was another of those desensitization lessons, and Roshi was glad that the lesson had not started, it may allow him to see how his ward was interacting with the current group of misfits he had joined up with.

Looking from behind the glass window that was part of the door, Roshi had no problem finding the children he was looking for. The short stocky boy was Kitsuchi, who was still wearing that damnable self-suffering smirk on his face. Next to him, with an expression that was the complete opposite, must be the sullen-looking Gari. He had a haunted look in his face, Roshi noted and if the reports were correct, had a rather tragic childhood. Still, it was not something that seemed to have affected him much, given how he was interacting with Han so easily. That only left the two Kunoichi of the group. The one who wore her black hair in a bob-cut hairstyle must be Inoue, another branch member of the Kamizuru clan, that leaves the last blond girl to be Yuuyake.

"What is it?" Roshi wondered aloud as he studied the child. She looked, for all intents and purposes, completely ordinary and disinterested in the upcoming lesson when the session's sensei called for quiet and began giving out instructions. Still, there was something about the child which he could not place.

He watched as the chunin sensei pulled out a rabbit from one of the cages beside him, holding it out and calling for a volunteer. None of the children immediately stepped forward at his summons, even Kitsuchi, which was normal, since this program was meant to make them get used to the idea of killing.

He watched as the sensei called out for a volunteer again, then found his attention drawn to Yuuyake, who was looking around at her fellow pupils, instead of paying attention. His eyes narrowed when the child seemed to sigh in depression before walking forward and taking the rabbit from the sensei. With one smooth motion, she snapped its neck before returning it to the beaming instructor and walking back to her fellows as though nothing had happened.

The entire eleven second in which the scenario had taken place was weirdly disturbing to Roshi, who then watched in fascination as the rest of the class was spurred into action, following the girl's example. Roshi paid them no mind, focusing only on the child who stood there with a disinterested look on her face as she watched her classmates murder the rest of the pitiful critters.

He had walked home in confusion that day, unsure of what to think of the child. One thing he was sure of, however, was that if he wanted his questions answered, he would need to observe her. Thankfully, being a Jinchuuriki in Iwa meant that he would have a lot of free time on his hands to complete that absurd task of his.

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"Yuuyake! Wake up, it's time to go."

I blinked my eyes opened as I sat up groggily, Inoue's face the first thing which I saw when my vision focused. God, I hate mornings.

"S'up, Inoue-chan." I yawned as I got off my rock-hard mattress. "What's the first session we have today?"

"Morning," She greeted back, "first lesson's Taijutsu. Breakfast is on the table if you're hungry, but don't eat too much."

"Right, thanks. You're the best." I waved lazily as I got into the bathroom. After the morning ritual had been completed, I walked out, feeling much more refreshed as I looked around at the spartan like apartment that had been my home for the past two years.

The walls, floor and ceiling were all made from the same grey-coloured rock, unsurprising since the apartments set aside for us Shinobi Trainees were pretty much carved from the side of the mountain overlooking the Iwa War Institution.

Even our room lacked any form of decoration. With the exception of the table, even the furniture came in pairs. Two Mattresses (not beds) that were as hard as the rock we walk on, two cupboards and two chairs. That was it in the one room, one toilet apartment. Still, it definitely beats living in the orphanage. I, for one, appreciate the lack of noise throughout the night, having pretty much lost count for the amount of nights where I was rudely awakened by incessant bawling.

"You should hurry up and change, Yuuyake-chan." Inoue urged me. I acknowledged the black haired girl's advice by simply getting rid of my long sleeved pajamas and donning my usual second-hand shirt and pants.

Inoue, however, showcased her family's wealth by donning a proper set of training wear, which was pretty much the Iwa-nin combat uniform minus the Hitai-ate. Not that I was jealous or anything, though I would say that it did look a whole lot more practical than just a simple shirt and pants.

Leaving our apartment, we descended the mountain. I smirked as I remembered how daunting I had found the task a few years ago. Sure, it was actually a dangerous place to be, especially considering how there was a lack of safety precautions around here. I had even seen more than my fair share of broken bones and bad bruises from students who had a bad fall down the mountainside.

But as soon as we had learned the vertical-walking technique and was able to apply it on a consistent basis, the entire thing had pretty much became a cakewalk, pun intended.

I grinned as I watched a group of students who were still gingerly making it down the steep steps which led to the War Institution, even giving them a wave as Inoue and I sped past them.

As we ran down the mountain, the familiar sight of the Iwa War Institution loomed closer before us. If I had to put the structure's description into a single word, that word would be 'castle'. Walls over fifty meters tall, with parapets, towers and a huge looming spire that was the Tsuchikage's residence rising from the middle of the structure. The Iwa War Institution was indeed very aptly named.

"You're late!" A voice rang out as we approached the front gate. I rolled my eyes as a figure leapt off the roof of one of the buildings, landing beside me and Inoue as we slowed to a stop.

He really loves his dramatic entrances, don't he?

"Hi Kitsuchi-kun." I greeted as I slowed myself down to a brisk walk. "Glad that you can make it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kitsuchi demanded as he matched our pace. The spawn of the Tsuchikage was a stocky little boy, just barely shorter than me despite being two years older. Like Inoue, he was dressed in a mini-version of the Iwa-nin combat dress. Unlike Inoue, however, he was boisterous and loudmouthed little brat, though I would thank the heavens that he was not as snobbish as some of the other kids in his clan, _despite_ being the _Tsuchikage's_ son.

It was probably the only reason why I was willing to banter with him as much I did. "Nothing much, just means that you're alive."

Any retort that Kitsuchi had was cut short as soon as we reached the registry. Security was taken extremely seriously in the Iwa, more so in the War Institution. Even as we handed in our identification slips, we were probed by a couple of the guards just to ensure that there were no transformation techniques being used before we were cleared to enter the building.

As we made our way towards our assigned classroom, I could not help but look at the huge map of the Elemental Nations displayed within the great hall. Like always, I found my gaze falling upon the sole country in the woodland south.

Konoha.

It had just seemed so surreal, each time I looked upon that name upon the map. A constant reminder that I had _known _this world.

Ever since I was a child, I had been plagued by weird dreams, dreams of a city not unlike Iwa, but made of glass and wagons of metal that roamed the streets instead of civilians. Sometimes though, the dreams become much more vivid, of a loving family, or maybe a trusted colleague, but never so clearly that I could remember their faces or names.

As I grew up, I had learned to accept that these dreams, at some point, were definitely real. It would explain why I was able to learn at the pace unlike the other children at the orphanage, and able to _speak _a language that no Iwa citizens could understand despite never having practiced it before. It would certainly explain why I could remember fragments of memories of things that I was pretty sure I had never experienced before.

The entire process was unnerving, though it was nothing compared to the shock I had when I realised that I recognized this world.

Ninjas that could do impossible feats akin to magic and sorcery, villages that were hidden in _something_. A Kage. As muddled as my memory had been, these things from this world had stood out to me like a sore thumb, somehow triggering thoughts that had been buried deep in my psyche and pulling them out for my poor uncomprehending childlike brain to contemplate.

It took me awhile, but from what little I could derive from the memories which I had had, I came to a conclusion.

This world was supposed to be a world which only existed in a story, a story from my previous life in fact. A story about a boy Naruto, who had been cursed to have a monster sealed within him but was willing to go against the odds to earn the acknowledgement of his people before saving them from a crazy mass-murdering antagonist.

I was not delusional enough to exactly jump for joy when I worked it out. That world was not exactly the place that one should _want _to be in. People die on a daily basis in this world.

Bottom line: I did not want to die.

Originally, once I had wanted to just become a mere nobody. Live out a normal, simple and comfortable life. The chances of dying were especially high when you were a Shinobi. So I had worked out a solution, just choose not to be one.

Or at least I thought I had.

Somebody out there must have had a great laugh when I had found out that I did not get a choice at all. In Iwa, if you were an orphan and found to be capable of being a Shinobi, you either become one or die trying.

It was a cruel system, and I had only found out about it when I was four years old, when I had accidentally stumbled upon a group of Iwa-nin who were in the process of kidnapping those kids who had refused the recruiter's offer. It was a stroke of luck that they did not notice me, who knows what might have happened if they did?

Volunteer or be conscripted, it was clear which one would work out for you in the long run, especially since you get no say on whether you want to be in the Shinobi corps or not.

So I volunteered, as soon as I was discovered with the ability to become a Shinobi. I even managed to convince the batch of orphans who were with me to volunteer as well. Not all of them would make it, I was not even sure if _I _would make it, but I'll be damned if I did not try my best to get out of this alive.

Second lives were hard to come by, after all. Probably.

My goals were simple. Become a Shinobi that's strong enough to protect myself, but not prominent enough that I'd have a target board on my back. All the while, I'd be trying for a simple desk job, probably one like Ichidai-sensei's, it looked safe enough to have a low mortality rate.

So far, it was going swimmingly well. I smirked at Inoue and Kitsuchi, who looked at each other worryingly for some reason. They were among the first allies I had managed to attain, along with two other kids I had managed to rope into my little group. Especially Kitsuchi, who was the Tsuchikage's son, he would be especially useful in drawing attention from me.

I had a plan. One that should keep me alive for the foreseeable future.

Hopefully.

* * *

**Hello everyone, Elusith here. Finally managed to get the second chapter out.**

**This one had been a rather pain to write because I couldn't really decide on the angle I wanted the story to portray. Had to rewrite this piece like about four times before I was satisfied. Regardless, I hope that it turned out well, though I couldn't help but be a little apprehensive about it seeing as my writing skill had deproved quite a bit(still working on it, will improve, I promise).  
**

**Reviews and constructive criticisms will be appreciated. And thank you for taking the time to read this chapter!  
**

**Regards,**

**Elusith.**


	3. Childhood Days II

Iwa War Institution, an impressive name for what seems to be the Iwa equivalent of the Shinobi academies of the other Elemental Nations, but at the very least, it's structure and atmosphere did the name justice.

Over forty thousand square feet in size alone, the grey fortress of the Institution was easily one of the largest buildings in the hidden village, save for the Shinobi Headquarters. However, if one thought that it's exterior was impressive, one need only look to the inside to find out how wrong they were.

Thirteen stories high, and with a huge underground complex that they could even have their own eco-system below, the interior of The Institution was made even more confusing due to the unorganised layout of its rooms. A literal maze on each floor, none but those familiar with the general location of the rooms could easily find their destination within this hellhole of a labyrinth.

And that was not even accounting for the fact that the corridors themselves were prone to change as well. Seals might lie hidden next to a section of the wall, and upon activation of it, said wall would slide into the ground to reveal the corridor behind it.

It was a very intricate defence system they have placed. Though I would have a whole lot more appreciation for it if I was not running late for the first class of the day.

"Have you guys found it yet?" I asked over my shoulder as I ran my hands over the wall. The seal should be here somewhere…

"Not here." Inoue frowned as she scanned the ceiling.

"Nope." Kitsuchi piped in as he looked about.

I was sure that there was supposed to be a corridor here. No, I was _certain._

It. Should. Be. Somewhere...

"Found it~" I sang as my fingers brushed against what seemed to be a simple patch of stone and dirt, but in fact was an intricate genjutsu covering the seal carved into the stonework. Kneeling down, I placed my palms together, and made the chakra circulate to them before slamming them onto the seal. My chakra flowed into the seal and I pulled at the intricate matrix that formed in my mind, activating it.

A section of the wall slid into the ground, surprisingly without much noise, revealing an entire hallway behind where it used to be.

"There we go." I smirked as I dusted my hands off.

"Great job, Yuu-chan!" Inoue cheered as she grabbed my hand and dragged me along despite my futile protest. "Let's go!" Kitsuchi, as usual, did nothing to stop her as he followed along.

It did not take us long before we arrived at Training Hall Three. A large spacious room littered with boulders about and a huge clearing in the centre. A clearing occupied by a large group of students that were congregating. I narrowed my eyes as I registered the shouting coming from the center of the crowd.

"What the heck's going on?" Kitsuchi growled, also sensing the tension in the air resulting from the commotion.

"No idea, but I can guess." I replied. After all, one of those voices sounded extremely familiar.

After much pushing and shoving, we soon found ourselves in a very familiar, and unwanted sight.

"Gari." I sighed, "what's going on?"

One of the five boys that were the centre of the attraction turned and grinned at me, "good timing, Yuu-chan. Taiseki here wants to start the lesson early." He nodded at black haired kid with stern features in front of him. "I was thinking if I could give him a helping hand. Want to help?" He looked at Inoue and Kitsuchi, "would invite the two of you too, but Han's already helping…"

"Ummm, no thank you!" Inoue replied quickly, her tone suggesting that she was glad to have the option to refuse.

I wish I had that sort of option.

"Han? Who started it?"

"They did." The stoic boy replied, the facial mask covering the bottom half of his face making his voice sound husky. He looked at me, "called you a 'worthless bitch' and Gari an 'orphan bastard'." He said bluntly, doing nothing to soften the words or his spite for the three kids that were staring us down.

Insults? Well, as a person who had the psyche of an adult, I like to think myself above such petty name-calling. Only problem was that those around me did not tend to possess my way of thinking. In addition to Han and Gari, Kitsuchi and even Inoue were beginning to feel more than a little agitated due to what they had just hurt.

I should defuse this situation, and fast. Gari looked more than a little bloodthirsty now.

Thankfully, I was freed from making any decisions when a huge cloud of chakra smoke burst out from atop one of the rocks, the giant of a man emerging from it drawing all of our attention.

"Nice to see all of you so active and awake this early in the morning!" Ichidai-sensei grinned as he jumped off the towering pillar of stone and landed casually upon the dirt-covered floor. A towering man of a little over two meters, the mustachioed instructor had a physique that would not have seemed out of place at a body-builder's competition. "However, do try not to kill each other." He shot a stink eye at the eight of us that were in the center of the crowd, "you are all shinobis-in-training of Iwa, the killing of comrades will not be tolerated."

Unless it was an order from the top, I mentally added. Pretty sure that in such a cloak and dagger world, something as nice as 'your comrades will never kill you' was non-existent. Still, it was a valiant attempt to make us get along and it was a point of pride among the Iwa instructors that they could get us to become as strong as other shinobis in the neighbouring villages without needing to resort to drastic methods like those employed by Kirigakure.

Though you must admit that there was something rather silly about killing half your graduating cohort. I mean, even if half of the army was useless, at least they could serve as cannon fodder, right?

It's all just simple numbers in the end.

"Well," Ichidai-sensei huffed, "seeing as you all have energy to spend, let's get on with getting rid of it." His eyes gleamed mischievously, "Today's activitiy is a no holds barred sparring match. Everything is allowed, save for lethal methods. I'd start by calling you out in pairs, unless we have any volunteers?"

"Sensei!" Kakkou raised his hand, his bushy hair swirling with the motion, "I volunteer!" He sneered in our general direction as he said that, as though daring us to take him on.

Well, sucks to be him, I had no intention of going with-

"You can have him, Yuu-chan." The annoying brunette of a boy beside me interjected. "I want Mahiru," Gari gritted his teeth as he looked at me expectedly, "go kick his butt."

I blinked as the class and Ichidai-sensei looked at me expectantly. Well, there was no way I could refuse now, could I? Not without losing the respect of half of those here, especially since I needed what little reputation I could cultivate here to help carry me when I became a shinobi.

"Fine." I sighed as I walked out alongside Kakkou. Ichidai-sensei grinned at the two of us before looking to the rest of the class.

"Alright, clear off to the top of the rocks!" He hollered at them. Turning back to us, he smiled, "are the two of you ready?"

We nodded, surprisingly in sync. Ichidai-sensei merely grinned in response as he raised a hand. "Right. Ready," He swung it down, "Begin!"

Kakkou was a vicious little asshole, that much I can tell, considering that he was already in motion before Ichidai-sensei had completed his word. It probably had to do with the fact that Kitsuchi and him never really saw eye-to-eye on things. He was probably like the others, too afraid of the Tsuchikage's kid to realize that despite how the instructors seem to favor him, all they really did was shower him with empty praise.

There might be a little bit of nepotism involved somewhere, but those incidents were few and far between. As far as I know, Kitsuchi never really received any special treatment that really _mattered_.

Like special jutsus, for one.

His kunai drawn while he was in the air, Kakkou made a wide swing for me, one easily dodged by a simple step to the side. I took advantage of the opening he presented to me to deliver a sweeping kick to his back, sending him tumbling forward with his own momentum. The impact numbed my leg for a little while too, and not for the first time did I curse this fragile body that I was born with.

At least it did not hurt as much as the first time that I did that. Proof that my daily morning exercises had paid off.

His face dirty from landing with it, Kakkou charged at me as soon as he stood up and I raised my right hand, seemingly going for a right hook. Anticipating the blow, he raised his own arms in defense, only to eat my knee to the face as I leapt forward suddenly, surprising him with my feint. Not letting up, I brought both my hands up, smacking both sides of his head simultaneously. His eyes rolled as he stumbled around, nose bleeding and dazed from my attacks.

"Fuck." He slurred as he tried to steady himself to no avail. "You little piece of-"

He did not get to finish as I clocked him a good one across the face. Call me rude or anything you want, but unless talking in battle served a purpose, like intimidation, the act of trying to find your enemies' location or even trying to rile your opponent up, I tend to find banter for the sake of it really pointless.

Sides, there was no point to rile up Kakkou when he was already doing that job for me. In fact, talking right now might focus him instead. No point doing that, I'd need all the advantages I could get in a spar after all.

Unlike half the kids in this room, I know my weaknesses well. Being one of the smaller kids around the block means that not only do I lack the reach of some of the others, but that my physical strength and stamina was probably lower as well. So what I lack in the physical aspect, I had to make up for in viciousness and unpredictably.

Feinting with a right hook only to knee him in the face, for one. Or kicking him right in the stomach while he was down to render him breathless and gasping for air. All hard enough to incapacitate an opponent but still in the general non-lethal zone. As a result, most of my opponents tend to end up in a really messed up state.

Of course, it was not an infallible technique. Some people like Gari had already figured how I fight and made our spars a battle of stamina. Then there was Han, who could throw punches so hard that they could knock me out with a single blow. It didn't help that my attacks tend to have no effect on him.

Still, Kakkou was easily in neither of those categories, being one of those who probably just wanted to beat me to a pulp. Truth be told, this was actually the second time we were pitted against each other and I would say that I had changed alot since the first time we fought, having walked away from that as bruised and battered as he had. Still, considering how the last fight had gone, you would think that he would have learned to at least not charge in as blindly as he did.

"Enough!" Ichidai-sensei called out as I looked down at a bruised and beaten Kakkou. I did not escape unscathed either, sporting a rather big bruise on my leg and sore knuckles from hitting him too hard. Nothing that a few plasters and medicinal ointment would not fix, courtesy of Inoue. Still, compared to the state Kakkou was in, you could say that it was pretty much a decisive victory for me.

"Winner, Yuuyake!" Ichidai-sensei proclaimed. "Now go back and join the rest." I nodded at sensei, and turned, giving a friendly wave to Han and the others on a nearby rock.

However, something just didn't feel right to me when they did not wave back, instead pointing to me. I heard the sound of sandals on dirt behind me, of sensei's sudden bark, "Kakkou!" and felt a general sense of danger settle about me. Without thinking, I dodged to a side, watching with wide eyes as a kunai sheared through my hair, which had been occupying the space I had been standing in a moment ago. Three more centimeters to the right and I would probably be sporting a rather nasty scar on my face.

It took me a fraction of a second in the adrenaline of the moment to register that Kakkou had just attacked me outside of the match. I was shocked at his behavior, but that was nothing compared to the indignation and anger that I felt.

_He might had killed me with that._

That realisation made my body move as I dove in under his right arm, driving my elbow in between his ribs. He wheezed with pain as I did that, but I paid him no mind as I proceeded to wrench his kunai from his grasp and stabbed it into his shoulder.

He actually screamed in pain from that one. I ignored it as I pulled it out from his shoulder, wincing only slightly from a sudden sharp pain in my head. Probably a case from a blood rush, I turned, knife raised at the man in civilian wear lying on the ground who had begun to whimper in pain.

Man? I blinked and looked again. This time, it was Kakkou. I looked up at the kunai in my hand, dripping with blood. _His _blood.

What had I just seen?

"Yuuyake, that's enough." A giant hand suddenly enveloped mine, while the other gently pried the kunai from my grasp. "He learned his lesson."

I looked up at him and then back to Kakkou on the ground, slowly loosening my grip on the weapon in my grasp. The irony that I had just stabbed Kakkou with his own weapon was not lost on me, though I was slightly surprised by the emotion I had felt when he tried stabbing me in the back. I frowned, looking at the bleeding boy on the ground.

Eh, he deserved it.

Sensei relaxed when he pulled the weapon from me, and merely glared at Kakkou. "Attacking a comrade from behind was the worst thing an Iwa-nin could have done, but it seemed that you had learned your lesson. " He jerked his head towards the door coldly. "Go to the infirmary, then take the rest of the day off."

Kakkou coughed as he stood up and started walking away, but not before giving me a hateful gaze. Seriously though, what was his problem?

"Get back to the rock, Yuuyake." Ichidai-sensei informed me curtly. Giving him a respectful nod, I made my way back to the crowd of kids perched on that edifice. Needless to say, they parted before me as soon as I was among them.

"Nice fight, Yuu-chan." Gari grinned fiercely, he looked as if he had enjoyed that fight immensely. I'd admit that even I was a little off put by how bloodthirsty he was. From how he had made it sound, he even made it look like I had enjoyed it.

"Hn, he had it coming." Kitsuchi muttered scornfully, his eyes gleamed as he turned to me. "Still, couldn't you just tone down the viciousness a little?" He muttered softly, "makes it hard for me to get the rest of them to cooperate." He jerked his head at the rest of class.

"Sure, if you want me to let half of them beat me to a pulp." I deadpanned.

"That is unwise." Han interjected, taking my side. "If you want to get better, you should always go all out." The outline of his mouth under that mask curled, indicating that he was grinning. "Still, Kakkou deserved it."

"Uh huh." I nodded as I brought my hand to my chin, contemplating a thought that had just occurred to me. "Still, why is Kakkou so intent on hurting me? I don't recall doing anything that should garner such a reaction out of him."

Silence descended on the group as the four of them looked at me with judgemental eyes. I tilted my head quizzically, "Uuuh, what?"

* * *

Well, it turns out that there indeed were plenty of reasons for Kakkou and gang to hold a grudge against me. Still, I would like to stress that it was not my fault that they had just been plain jerks to me despite the fact that I might have accidentally _almost _murdered them on two separate occasions.

Though, in my defense, who would have thought that it was a wise idea to go into an abandoned cave system when the entire class had been taught the Rock Collapse technique from the Earth Release that week and told to practice it wherever possible in a deserted environment?

Right, kids. I should have known. Forget that I said anything.

I sighed as I looked at the combat going on right now. This should be the last bout for this session. Han was facing down another boy in our class, Furo, I believe he was called. The other kid was holding a kunai as he fought the older boy, but might as well be unarmed for all intents and purposes considering how immovable Han was when he felt like it, at least to the others in our class.

Hell, he wasn't even wearing the full plate armor that his guardian had bought for him.

In his own typical fashion, Han dodged his opponent's attacks with minimal movement before striking back, turning the fight against him into a battle of attrition as his opponent was forced to dodge Han's sweeping blows. And considering the excessive movement which Furo had been using, well, needless to say that Han had this fight in the bag.

I winced as Furo eventually failed to react in time to one of Han's punches and took it head on, being sent flying a full thirty and counting meters as a result. As the cloud cleared from his landing, it was clear that Furo wasn't getting up anytime soon, leading to Sensei calling the match in Han's victory.

Once the entire class, sans Kakkou, was back in working condition, sensei called the rest of us to gather.

"Good showing, all of you. With the exception of the first fight…" I wilted a little at his gaze, "I am glad to see that the rest of you are fit enough to continue to the second session." He grinned, "while I know that you are supposed to continue practicing your Rock Collapse technique, there appears to be a change in your curriculum." His expression turned serious. "You are to head to the archives next, and you will be allowed to pick one technique from the designated shelves that you'd have to perfect by your graduation."

Murmurs of excitement broke out around me. However, I did not join in as the other trainees excitedly discussed what techniques that they would want to take from the archives. Instead, I raised my hand.

"Yes, Yuuyake?"

"Sensei, forgive me if I'm out of bounds, but why the sudden change in curriculum?" I asked skeptically. It had seemed out of the ordinary to suddenly change it, especially since most Iwa-nin graduated from the institution learning the basic three ninjutsu and the standard two Earth Releases upon our graduation.

Why the sudden change in formula? Was something going to happen?

"Not sure," Sensei shrugged, brushing my question off. "Just received my instructions today actually." He then looked at us, the seriousness in that gaze causing the rest of the kids to quiet down, "However, if I have to guess, it would seem that they would want to increase the quality of the students graduating here from now on." He smirked at us, not a really kind one at that. "Which means that you had better not disappoint them, especially if you want your futures secured in the ranks."

Makes sense, unlike the other academies, the Iwa War Institution had practically a zero percent failure rate when it comes to graduating shinobis, mostly because those who could not make it in here were immediately dropped out of the course once they were deemed unfit. It made sense to want to increase the quality of the shinobis that were graduating, seeing that having stronger ninjas would make it easier for clients to approach our nation with more mission requests.

However, I could not help but feel that there was something else to all of this. I mean, even Ichida-sensei had admitted that he had only just received the news. This meant that this was a sudden decision, and the only thing that could spur such a huge change in such a short time period was… I racked through the fragmented memories in my brain as I tried to recall what I knew about this world. That was when I paused as the sudden thought occured to me.

War.

In the history books, there had only been one Great Shinobi War, while I had recalled that there were three...

There's another one coming, wasn't there?

Shit.

* * *

_She sat alone in the office, a piece of paper before her and a pen in her hand. Before her, two men dressed in black suits watched her silently as she stared at the empty report, as she wondered what to write._

_She did not know how much time had passed, though it probably unnerved the two before her by how calm she had been. Having already heard how she had gone through what she did, seeing her completely undistressed was probably rather disconcerting._

_Not that she regretted what she did. The police were running late and that man had killed one of her colleagues, and probably her too if she had not stabbed him first before slicing his neck. She had thought that she would have found her own actions sickening._

_Instead, she found it refreshing._

_That disturbed her a little. She frowned, causing the two men to flinch slightly, probably because she had been motionless for the past few minutes. If she had enjoyed what she did, then what made her different from that person she had just killed?_

_She thought long and hard about it. She liked the peace that surrounds her, she'd prefer the daily routine to what had just happened and she would much rather have all that then living on the run from the local law enforcers. As such, for all intents and purposes, she should be a normal person._

"_Excuse me, miss?" One of the men cleared his throat. "Do you want to have a break? You can always continue after you have taken some time to rest." His eyes were worried as he looked at her._

_She felt a flash of annoyance at the man who had just broken her train of thought. However, she did not snap at him despite her initial urge to do so. Instead she quelled the desire as she smiled at the man, assuring them that she was good to continue and that she just needed more time to remember the incident that had happened. Besides, yelling at him would serve no purpose here besides needlessly agitating the two men before her. Such an action would be beneath her._

_After all, self-control was one of her most valued attributes._

* * *

**Hello Everybody. Elusith here.**

**Got this chapter out at last, though I had to admit that I had to spend a little time to at least give the rest of the cast a little bit more personality. Probably need more development on those fronts, though that would have to made in the future chapters. **

**On that note, I am still trying to work out a proper updating schedule for this story. So updates will be irregular until then.**

**Still, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! And reviews will be greatly appreciated!**

**Regards,**

**Elusith**


	4. Childhood Days III

**I do not own Naruto, only this story and its OC.**

* * *

_Silence is key_. I whispered that mantra to myself as I crept forward among the rocks, eyes trained on the rabbit that was grazing on the patch of grass in front of me. Lightly, I stepped forward until I was in range, before I pounced and brought my fist down on its neck in one smooth motion. An audible crack rang throughout the clearing I was in and I picked up the corpse of the bunny and slung it over my shoulder.

"Good job, Yuu-chan!" I looked over at Inoue, who was approaching me with a sack full of berries, "that should settle dinner for tonight!"

"Yeah," I replied, "but I'm cooking." I gave her a deadpan stare.

"But that was two weeks ago!"

"And people still avoid you like the plague because you mistook a bottle of poison which you brewed for soy sauce." I made a face. "Did you know how shocked I was when I returned from a scouting trip to find everyone at the camp collapsed and moaning like it was the end of the world?"

It had all started so innocently. The entire class was out for a generic survival exercise in the mountains near the village. Camp was made and I had been chosen to head a small patrol to scout the area.

Then Inoue had volunteered to cook. The rest went down exactly as what you would expect when one dumped a generous amount of poison into a cauldron. Thank the gods that it was non-lethal in small doses but needless to say, the three boys, Hans and I had been downright stunned when we returned to find three quarters of our class, including Ichidai-sensei, hunched over and groaning in pain.

"But…"

"Hell no." I deadpanned, cutting her off. "I'm cooking, and that's that." I paused. "Or I can force Han to cook. By the way, have you ever thought of specializing in assassination? You might have a knack for it given how you accidentally poisoned half the entire class." I asked, changing the topic.

"Really?" Inoue's eyes light up.

"Yeah, I don't see why not." I replied, shrugging as I made my way back to the camp. For this week's survival exercise, we were told to split up into groups of three to eight, the typical numbers for an Iwa shinobi squad and live in the forest for three days.

To nobody's surprise, Han, Gari, Kitsuchi, Inoue and I grouped up again, mostly due to the fact that we were probably just a bunch of outcasts that the rest of the kids avoid like a plague. Couldn't really find it in me to blame them though, after all, we did make a rather intimidating bunch.

"Hello, Yuu-chan." Han smiled as I made my way into the camp. He eyed the rabbit that I held in my hand. "Nice catch."

"Why thanks." I grinned in response as I proceeded to skin the corpse, "anything interesting happened around here while we were away?"

"Kitsuchi thought he saw a goat and he got Gari to follow him." Han shrugged. "Wouldn't bet too much on them catching it though."

"Well, knowing the both of them, they aren't the types to easily give up." Inoue muttered as she began sorting out the berries she had gathered. The girl had a good head for botany, she could easily name every single plant in the greenhouse that was in the Iwa War Institution.

Not going to trust her with the cooking if I could help it though. I mean, how did you mistake a bottle of nightshade with soy sauce?

Still, cleaning the rabbit out was a really messy work. Had you ever seen a butcher in action before? Something like that, only with much more intestines and blood that we had buried underground. While I was sure that someone out there would probably find those bits a delicacy, it would be a very long time (probably forever) before I could get used to the idea of eating innards.

Once the disgusting bits were buried six feet under, I could actually get to preparing the meal properly. Sticking to good old Iwa cuisine, there was nothing like a fresh hot pot of stew to warm us up. Due to Land of Earth being primarily a mountainous area, we were almost in a perpetual state of autumn and winter at all times. Three of our four seasons were chilly, while the last was just freezing cold. And that's not even considering the temperature at night.

As such, meals at Iwa mainly consist of hot food like broth, soup with bread or rice, porridge or stew. And truth be told, while we could use our chakra to keep ourselves warm during those chilly nights, there was nothing that beats having a warm meal after a training session in the cold outdoors.

True to what Inoue predicted, just as the sun was setting, Gari and Kitsuchi returned, their clothes slightly dishevelled, their faces dirty and their hands empty. Seems like their little excursion had failed. Kitsuchi, in his own boorish fashion, sat down and grunted at me irritably. "When's dinner?"

"When it's ready." I replied as I stirred the contents in the pot with a ladle. While I'm definitely no Master Chef, I would say that I had made a rather decent meal with what I was given.

"Hurry up then." He complained. "I'm starving!" Gari,boy of few words that he was, merely grunted his

"Yeah, yeah." I muttered. Seriously, trust the Tsuchikage's kid to be bossy. You would think he'd have mellowed out in the two years that the five of us had been together but nooooo, our resident terror had to remain just as he was.

Well, most of us here were only nine years old, so there was still plenty of time for him to grow out of it. Hopefully.

Luckily for Kitsuchi, it did not take long before I had deemed that the stew was ready. Pouring the piping hot meal into wooden bowls, it was not long before the five of us were enjoying a warm meal in the middle of a cold night.

It was a good feeling, to be honest. In all the fragments of the previous memories that I had, I had been unable to remember a time when I actually had a meal like this. Just me and my friends in the outdoors, enjoying a meal that we had prepared.

Of course, the irony that the reason why I could enjoy it was because we were all being trained to become child-killers was not lost on me.

"So." Gari piped up suddenly, breaking me away from my reverie, "what were you guys planning for your specialization?"

Specialization. The first two years in the Institution was mainly basic shinobi training, with a splash of nature manipulation involved. However, unlike the other shinobi academies across the Elemental nations, in our third year, all the trainees were quickly placed into the fields that their teachers had deemed that they would be most proficient in. According to Ichidai-sensei, it was so that we could easily find our place in the village.

Lies. One need only look at the intake numbers of each Iwa Shinobi Division each year (courtesy of Kitsuchi) to easily tell that it was only a method to provide personnel to whichever division needed it most. The patterns in the Iwa records speak for themselves, each year, only a handful of trainees were actually split off from the main group and placed into some of the other divisions while one particular division would receive the bulk of that year's recruits. Taking last year's numbers as an example, the majority of last year's recruits went to the Fourth Division, while other divisions had only received less than five trainees.

Given the general trend, however, one could easily predict where the majority of these year's trainees would head to. From the looks of it, it appears that we were destined for a simple life in the Third Division, which specializes in scouting.

I contemplated telling Gari this, but decided not to break the boy's heart so early. Besides, he was stubborn to a fault, so there was a chance that he could succeed in applying for a transfer to the Explosion Corps if he displays the necessary aptitude.

In three to five year, of course. Hell, applying for a transfer was a long and arduous process that normally ends in failure, probably due to poor administration when you considered how hard it was to get a blanket when Inoue and I had realized that our bunk only had one (it took them three weeks, by the way, for _one_ blanket). So there was a good chance that he would have to do it multiple times.

In double digits.

"Anywhere's fine." Han replied.

"Same," I echoed. "So long as it gets me a desk job, I'm good."

"Seriously, Yuu-chan?" Kitsuchi eyed me incredulously, "you're still gunning for a desk job?"

"Why not?"

"But that's just booooring!" He replied, "don't you want to get stronger?"

"Mmmmh." I hummed, not bothering to reply to his question. Sure, I'd like to get stronger, but not at the expense of having to risk my life for it. I mean, you can get as strong as you would want, but it would mean nothing when you were dead.

I'd prefer being alive than being dead, thank you very much. Sadly, that was a thought that most of the kids and _adults_ that I had met fail to share.

"Infiltration!" Inoue said optimistically. "I always wanted to go to the other nations."

I rolled my eyes in response. "Just make sure that you don't get caught while you are out there. I heard that the other nations don't take too kindly to spies."

"Well, I always scored highly on my Kunoichi tests. Unlike somebody." Inoue stuck out her tongue at me, clearly indicating the person in her statement. "I'm sure that I'd make it."

"Hey, at least I scored rather well on my tea-culture." I protested. I paused, "and I did get enough to pass too."

"Yeah, and if you weren't sleeping through each lecture, you would be scoring much better than a fifty-three percent." Inoue deadpanned.

"Hey, it's still a pass." I shrugged. I mean, unless you really want to become an infiltration specialist, there was no real need to actually invest in those skills. And infiltration was like the last thing that I would want to specialize in, as that would mean that I'd be spending more time behind enemy lines.

Inoue can keep her infiltration specialization. It'd be a long time before I would even _want_ to be behind enemy lines. And even then, I'd probably be there unwillingly too.

Inoue made as if to reply, before seemingly giving up on me as though I was hopeless and turning back to her bowl of stew. From the sound of how she was demolishing it, it would appear that she was indeed rather frustrated at me.

Not like she had any reason to. I had my goals all planned out, after all.

"Well, I for one do not care about where I'm heading." Kitsuchi grinned, brimming with confidence. "At the end of the day, I'm going to be Tsuchikage!" He eyed all of us, "and the rest of you better make it big too! I'm going to need proper followers when I make it big!"

I looked at him skeptically, "doesn't sound like something you'd say."

"Yeah," Han agreed, folding his arms as he set aside his empty bowl. "Wasn't that one of old man's Oonoki's lines the other day?"

Oh right, Han lived in the same compound with the Tsuchikage. And by compound, I meant the Kamizuru compound, the second largest castle-like building in the village. Though I had never been inside before, clan restrictions and all that nonsense.

"The old man's got some good advice once in awhile, okay?" Kitsuchi scowled even as the rest of us grinned at him. Talking about Kitsuchi's father was really the easiest way to get him riled up, and it was commonly used as a method by the rest of us to tease the robust boy. Some friends we were, huh?

"I hate you all." He mumbled as soon as he realized that we were merely making fun of him.

"Don't worry." I winked at him, "we love you too. Until you start ordering us around, that is."

"Heh." Gari grinned. "Well, I hope that I get drafted by the explosion corps." His smile turned feral, "especially with the war coming."

"You sure you don't have Kiri blood in you?" Kitsuchi asked, an eyebrow raised, "I swear, you love fighting way too much."

"Probably," Gari replied, frowning, "I mean, like Yuu-chan, I am an orphan and Kiri was well-known for the amount of nuke-nins that it spills out. Won't be surprising if I had some blood from over there." He scowled, "not that I care, if I meet one of them in the upcoming war, it's not like I'd be hugging them so much as I'd be stabbing them."

"Yeah right, as if you'd get close enough to one of them." I replied, rolling my eyes. Kiri-nin were notorious for being as evasive as they actually were. And considering that we would only be genins when the War finally breaks out, I sincerely doubt Gari's ability to keep that promise.

"But is there really going to be a war?" Inoue asked in a rather small voice. She never really did like fighting, preferring to settle conflicts with words rather than fists. Or poison, in some cases.

"Probably," Kitsuchi muttered. "Dad just keeps muttering on and on about how negotiations with the Cloud and Leaf were breaking down."

"Not like it would matter." Gari grinned savagely, "Iwa is going to come out on top anyway. Right, Kitsuchi?"

"Yeah!"

I shook my heads at their antics. Still, what was I expecting? We were a bunch of kids that were training to become professional killers, of course some of us would be looking forward to this. Nevertheless, there was something slightly unnerving about a bunch of kids discussing the upcoming conflict as casually as one would be wondering what to have for lunch tomorrow.

Well, I chuckled, at least they were on my side.

"Are we ready though?" Han, ever the voice of reason within our group, said aloud.

"Probably?" I shrugged. "I mean, I dunno about you guys, but I'd be doing my best to stay alive."

"Says the one who cheated and got herself two ninjutsu instead of one." Kitsuchi muttered.

"The Boulder Technique and Lightened Boulder Technique are pretty much the same, thank you very much." I retorted. In fact, I had actually gone to great pains to choose a non-combat jutsu so that I could have a valid reason to not be on the front lines.

I mean, I don't mind killing stuff, but it's kind of a different story when you were in a position to be killed yourself.

"Huh, well it's still not as cool as the ninjutsu that I picked!"

"You're just saying that because I chose the ninjutsu that the Tsuchikage keeps using everyday." I smirked at him, slowly counting down to the outburst that would soon arrive.

"What, hell no!"

Called it. I chuckled as I exchanged jabs with Kitsuchi, while the others piped in from time to time. Our little conversation continued for quite some time, but in the end, we were just a bunch of eight to ten years old. Being the oldest of the bunch(mentally), I 'graciously' allowed the others to fall asleep on their own accord as I took on the job of the first watch.

The rest didn't know it, but first watch of the night was the easiest, then again, I wasn't exactly the most selfless person around.

Let's just be clear, the first watch was boring. _Especially_ when you were the only one on duty. Not to mention that I'd probably make a terrible guard, given how I began to not take note of my surroundings and started drifting towards the foremost thoughts on my mind. Thankfully, it was easier to collect my thoughts when it was quiet, bereft of the noise that my companions loved to make.

My memories of 'Back Then' were still very much fragmented and shattered. And truth be told, what I did know wasn't really much to work with either. In fact, the only few things that I could confidently say that I had inherited as a result of my 'circumstances' was just my general sense of danger.

Still, I was in too deep now to even want to get out of the Shinobi Corps. Deserting would get me into way too much than it was worth and the chance at a desk job was very unlikely with a war coming just over the horizon.

As much as I'd rather not participate in the conflict. It appears that none of us here would get much of a choice in the matter. So that would mean that a change in priorities would be required.

Or a change in methods, at least. My main priority was to still survive in this world.

I needed to survive. As a shinobi. The main question was, how?

The answer was surprisingly simple and I snorted as soon as I realized it. I needed to become stronger. I needed to become more powerful, not only physically, but in all facets. Enough that I could remain untouched.

That means that I'd need to not only train myself, but also acquaint myself with various individuals. Powerful individuals.

I looked behind me at the four kids that were lying about in the clearing, asleep. One of them was an obvious connection to the Tsuchikage, though it was unfortunate that he… disliked his father. Han and Gari were easily the strongest among our class, that was certain, and Inoue was from an influential branch of the Kamizuru family. All of them would make valuable allies in the future, if they lived on. Allies I would need.

It wasn't much, but it was something. I looked up into the sky, at the full moon that shines down at us. For some reason, it felt really important, but I filed the worry I felt when I looked at it at the back of my head in favor of my immediate situation.

After all, if it was important, I wouldn't have forgotten it now. Would I?

* * *

Unlike what many would think, the Second Shinobi World War did not kick off with a huge battle or anything remotely exciting. It began with a few disagreements between the countries, then certain notable figures, civilians, nobles and shinobi, began to disappear. Tensions rose drastically, then one day, a single outpost on the border of the Land of Lightning was attacked by Konoha-nins.

The effect was instantaneous. War was declared, alliances were forged and the nations mobilised for war. The well-oiled war machine that was the Iwa Shinobi Corps was truly terrifyingly efficient when it comes to how it was deployed.

Regardless, that did not make me feel better as I glared at the envelope atop my bed. It was a deployment letter and my annoyance with it was twofold. The first was mainly to do with my suspicion of how the letter came onto my stone-hard mattress. I really did not enjoy the fact that someone had easily slipped into my bunk to place that letter. The second one was more so to deal with the contents of the letter. Despite having not read it yet, I could not suppress my irritation that they were sending an eight-year-old, half-baked kunoichi who had not even been specialized yet onto the battlefield.

Then I remembered that it was the norm of this world and everything just suddenly made sense.

Not.

I hate this world. I know that it was not much to use as a comparison, but even what I could pull from the fragments of my memory in the other world trumps this shit. I mean, they even had child protection services on the other side while this world sends its own barely-trained kids onto the battlefield!

I pinched the bridge of my nose as I sighed. Definitely one of the most depressing mornings that I had woke up to. I mean, how many people wake up to find a letter delivered to them that was telling them to effectively sell their lives to a nation?

Why did I become a shinobi again? Oh right, because I didn't have a choice. Silly me.

Still, how bad could this get? I shrugged as I picked up the envelope and read it. As a half-baked kunoichi kid, the logical place to deploy me would be near the rear. I let my eyes skim over majority of the paper, until I found the line that matters the most to me.

"... Attached to the Iwa Second Division…" Second Division? I frowned. Which division was tha-

"Shit." I cursed aloud. Iwa Second Division, it was the recon division… and that's not the worst part. As the advance force, they were to be the first force to advance unto Amegakure…

Fuck. My. Life.

* * *

**Hello all, Elusith here.**

**Been a rough week, but I squeezed this chapter out in time. Regardless, I'd want to thank all of you who had been reading and enjoying this fic so far. Furthermore, I received a couple of PMs as to how Yuuyake's name is written so here it is: 夕焼け. It means sunset in english.  
**

**Again, I'd like to thank you all for reading this fic, and if you have any criticism, questions or thoughts about this fic, please leave a review!**

**Sincerely,  
Elusith  
**

**P.S. May all of you stay safe and healthy during this period of time!**


	5. Childhood Days IV

**I do not own Naruto, only this story and its OCs**

* * *

"So this is the place." I muttered as I looked up at the huge grey building that rose up into the sky, with the character for 'Two' framed in red within a circle of the same color stuck to the top of the structure. According to my deployment notice, this place should be where I would have to report to.

Still, was it too late to escape? I eyed the double wooden door entrance apprehensively. As much as I know that going AWOL would easily paint a death sentence for me, I still could not shake off the feeling of unease I get whenever I look at the entrance of that building.

It probably had something to do with the fact that the Second Iwa Shinobi Division specializes in Reconnaissance, which was pretty much the byword for 'first into the enemy lines'. Basically, they were the scouts of the army, which pretty much means that if anything goes wrong on the front, I'd be the first to die.

Not an entirely enticing prospect, if you ask me.

"What are you doing?"

The sudden voice jolted me out of my reverie and I looked up to see a tanned man look down at me, his face a picture of concern. He had a face that looked as if it were carved from granite and a bushy brown beard to compliment it. He was also garbed in the iwa standard uniform, a single sleeved red kimono with leather armor worn over it and had his brown hair tied backwards by a red bandanna, held in place with the hitai-ate prominently featuring the symbol of Iwa.

"Uh, no." I replied, silently cursing myself for staring off into space. "Just… uh… hyping myself up?"

"Huh," He raised an eyebrow at me, before his eyes widened in recognition. "Ah yes, there is supposed to be a recruitment for the Second Iwa Division today…" He trailed off as he looked at the building for half a second before returning his attention to me. "Well, you should get going." He grinned at me, "don't want to keep them waiting, yes?"

Without another word, he vanished with a use of the Body Flicker technique, with only a swirl of dust to mark his passing. I blinked a bit as I brushed myself clean of the dust which that inconsiderate man had left behind.

Still, who the heck was that guy?

Well, it was not like the universe would just dump the answer in my lap anyway. I shook my head in exasperation as I entered the building. From there on, the instructions had been easy, just pass the document to the receptionist who would then point me in the right direction to the hall that I was supposed to head to.

The process took all of five minutes, and I soon found myself wandering down a corridor that was carved out of stone (seriously, would it hurt them to just decorate this place a bit?).

"Hall eight-B." I muttered, repeating the words given to me by the probably-not-a-civilian receptionist, that woman had been smiling way too knowingly to actually be one of them everyday villagers.

"Oh, for the love of…" I sighed as I entered the hall and rested my eyes on the group of genins that were standing in front of me. Especially the three who were standing in front of me.

"Well, well." Kakkou leered at me from his spot in the formation. Mahiru scowled at me from his side while Taiseki seemed almost indifferent to my presence. A classic response from the most classic trio of class bullies that I'd ever met. I mean, it was as if they did not have any other setting.

I rolled my eyes and took my place at the end of four by eight formation, far enough away from the three of them. After all, it would make more sense to actually stay away from them now. _Especially _since they seemed to be still harboring animosity against me since our time in the institution.

I suppose that I should be glad that I was not in the same batch that received the hitai-ate with them. Though I suppose that it was too naive of me to hope that I would not need to see them for the foreseeable future. I mean, the Iwa shinobi corps only numbered around a thousand and counting shinobi, it would have been inevitable for me to meet them.

Still, my luck must have been rather terrible that I had to meet them here. I mean, Gari, Han, Kitsuchi and Inoue all weren't here. It must have been rather shitty luck that placed me with the troublesome trio _alone._

Well, nothing I could do about it now. I sighed as I stood at my spot, doing my damndest to ignore the glares that Kakkou was shooting me from his place in the formation. I could almost hear the plans that he was most probably cooking up to get back at me for all those times in which I had beaten him in Taijutsu matches.

Seriously, I never thought that it was possible for someone to hold a grudge over something so trivial. Guess I was wrong. I looked at the clock hanging from the grey wall in front of me, there was five minutes left to the reporting time.

Welp, looks like I would need to endure that stupid gaze a little bit longer.

Those five minutes were probably the longest five minutes of my life. It had been most uncomfortable knowing that I was going to be in the second Iwa division with three boys that would probably make my life difficult.

If there was a god, I would really appreciate it if I could somehow get out of this situation.

"All right maggots!" A voice suddenly called out. I looked up to see a man dressed in the Iwa shinobi uniform stomping to the front of the thirty-two of us. He looked to be in his late forties, a huge feat for any shinobi, since death was a rather common occupational hazard in our line of work. Still, apart from his greying full faced mustache, the man gave no sign that he was retiring from his line of work soon, given how he was practically bouncing with every step he made as he grinned at us like a predator eyeing the newest batch of prey.

It was unnerving to say the least.

"So you're the newest batch of shrimps that are joining the Second Iwa division?" He glared at us, "huh, your profiles looked a lot more impressive than your persons." He muttered loudly, enough for everyone in the room who was paying attention to hear him. He snorted, "well, I gotta take what I can get, I suppose."

Dissatisfied murmuring broke out among the ranks, though I ignored it as I felt a slight chill go down my back, the unease telling me that someone was watching me. I looked about as subtly as I could, but found my attention returning to the man before him as he spoke again.

"Right, anyway, I am Tetsu, a jounin from the second division. As your receiving superior, that means that I'd be in charge of the lot of you, as well as your chunin captains when you're assigned to teams." He clapped his hands together before pointing at one of the boys in the front row. "Now, you over there, tell me the reason why you had graduated so early?"

"Uh…" The poor boy looked stunned for a moment at being singled out so early.

"Hurry up, boy!" Tetsu barked, "I don't have all day!"

"Uh, because there was a war!" The boy shouted.

"Exactly," Tesu frowned. "For some reason, Konoha decided to start attacking Kumo, and because of that, High Command decided to quickly bolster the ranks of the shinobi corps so that we can cover more fronts in this oncoming war." He tapped the wall behind him, and like a curtain of grey, it fell apart revealing a rather generic map of the Elemental to Iwa, "as you can see, Iwa's neighbours with pretty much two of the Five Great Shinobi Countries, Konoha and Suna, but we are also neighbours with a few rather prominent smaller countries," He tapped a land between the Iwa, Suna and Konoha, "like Amegakure, for example. So as you can see, until High Command began making some sort of peace treaty or military alliance with certain villages, Iwa is pretty much surrounded by enemies."

He paused for a moment and looked at the lot of us, though I did catch something akin to disappointment flash in his eyes before he turned back to the map. Though I did find it weird when he looked to a wall for the briefest of moments before he continued. "Well, that means that there were more fronts to be covered, as such we need more bodies on the job to satisfy that condition." He turned back to us. "Which is where you all come in."

"We are the Iwa Second Division." He looked at us expectantly before pointing at another boy, one who I identified to be Mahiru from where I stood, "I presume you know what we're doing?"

"Yes sir!"

"Tell me then."

There it was again. I frowned as I took note of the second time Tetsu had looked to the same patch of wall in his wall. It was almost as if it were intentional and not to mention that it was as though he was dragging out the speech on purpose. After, military reconnaissance spoke enough for itself with regards to the job scopes within it.

Should I risk it? After all, it almost looked as if this were a test, given how Tetsu had been dropping his hints like no tomorrow. I glared at the patch of wall, trying to see if there was anything unusual about it. Regardless, I could not tell anything faulty with it. Still, _Genjutsu _was a thing, so it could just be a very realistic illusion.

Should I risk it? I looked up at the man still lecturing us on what the Second Division was in charge of. The pieces seemed to add up, after all, while Tetsu did say that he didn't have all day, for some reason, he was standing here wasting his own time with informing us about something so basic. So it was either the fact that he was testing us, or he just loved the sound of his own voice.

If it was the former, it would be a great chance for me to impress the upper ranks, which would help me when I wanted to apply for a certain rather enticing desk job. On the other hand, if it were the latter… I'd probably be making myself look like a fool…

"To do, or not to do?" I said under my breath.

You know what?

Fuck it.

I brought my palms together, feeling the chakra flow within my body. That was when I noticed it, a small tendil of foreign chakra within my system, a clear sign that genjutsu had been used on me.

Looks like I was right.

"Kai!" I muttered, sending a small ripple through the chakra within me. Almost as if on command, the part of the wall faded away to reveal the very same man that I had bumped into this morning.

He smiled at me knowingly and then gestured at me to walk over to him. I opened my mouth, only to close it again when he brought a finger up to his lips, telling me to stay silent as he gestured at me to walk over to him again.

I hesitated slightly, but decided against my better judgement to walk over. To my surprise, Tetsu merely gave me a grin while the rest of the platoon continued to listen to him without even giving me a glance. It was almost as though they were under a…

Of course, they were under an illusion. I slapped myself mentally. This was it, wasn't it? A test for us, and I was called out because I managed to catch onto it first.

Well, I was always a rather opportunistic person, so there was no way I would be letting a chance like this slip past my grasp. Sides, given that I was called out means that I had probably impressed this man before me enough that he would be wanting me… for whatever he wanted me for…

It was only then that I realized that I probably did not think this through as much as I should have.

The man, on the other hand, did not notice my misgivings as he merely waved to Tetsu in thanks before gesturing to me to follow him out of the room. It was only once we were out of that place when he turned to me, a smile on his face.

"Fancy seeing you here," He smiled as he studied my face, "so, what's your name?"

"Yuuyake." I answered automatically. "Clanless."

"Right, my name is Wataru, from the Kamizuru clan." He nodded at me, "from now on, you will be under me. Understood?"

"Uh…" What the hell had I gotten myself into? "Understood, sir." I replied, keeping my face neutral despite my inner turmoil. First impressions were important, after all. So it would be in my best interest to not spoil that impression.

Probably.

"Good," Wataru said as he turned around. "Follow me."

To my absolute surprise. He led me out of the Second Division building.

_Wasn't he part of the Second Division?_ I could not help but think as I trailed after him dutifully. It had been a logical assumption, given how easily he had just walked into the building and being involved in the test for the division's new recruits.

"Uh, Wataru-san?"

"What?" He replied, not breaking stride as he led us past a series of walkways that were carved into a cliff, a long drop into the stone buildings below us just to the side.

"Are we heading to another of the second division's facilities?"

To my surprise, he merely scoffed at that. "You're not wrong there." He said, though I could sense a sort of amusement emanating from him. It was rather foreboding and unnerving to be honest.

I was already regretting the decision I had made back in the headquarters already.

We finally stopped in front of a rather ordinary looking tea house. Pushing the door open, Wataru entered and I trailed after him dutifully. The interior was as plain as you could get in Iwa. Round wooden tables littered the area, each surrounded by simple chairs of the same make. At the other end of the compound, there was a single bar manned by a rather elderly looking woman with her grey hair tied into a bun.

"Wataru-san," The lady smiled as he approached her. "How nice to see you. I presume that you'd like the usual?"

"Not today, Kimiko-san." Wataru replied, not unkindly. "I'd need a set of uniform her size," He pointed at me, "and supplies for a month."

I blinked. What was going on?

"Sure thing." Kimiko smiled as she looked at me. "Mmmmh, don't you think that she's a bit small?"

Well, excuse me for being small. I'm eight!

"Well, she is a bit small, but I'd like it if you get the uniform ready please."

"Very well, look after the counter for me, if you would." Kimiko said as she bent behind the counter, and pulled open the trapdoor on which she was standing on before disappearing down into it.

"Take a seat." Wataru said as he sat himself down at one of the tables. With nothing much going for me, I followed suit.

"You have questions, don't you?" He said as he drummed his fingers rhythmically on the wooden surface of the table.

"Yes, Wataru-san." To be honest. I don't just have questions. I had a whole mountain of them that seemed to be increasing exponentially as time passed.

"Sensei."

"Uh, pardon?"

"From now on, I am your team leader and teacher. As such, you will address me appropriately."

"Understood, Wataru-sensei."

"Now, I am sure that you are confused about what was going on. But I am going to give you a briefing now." He looked me in the eyes. "Wherever, the second Division receives an intake of genins, a simple test would be conducted by one of its subdivisions."

I nodded my head. That little genjutsu stunt just now must have been the test. Only thing was, while I knew that that test was probably a way for this subdivision to recruit its members, I still did not know which subdivision that was.

"Unlike standard Iwa teams which operate in numbers three to eight, this particular subdivision only ever works in pairs when on their own specialized missions." Wataru-sensei continued. "As such, its members are personally chosen by the senior shinobis within the division."

Yes, that was good and all, but what was the subdivision's name?

"I have chosen you because of your observational skills, and the ability to pick up the body language of Tetsu-san just now." He produced a stack of papers from his pouch and took a single one from it, "not to mention that your profile description was rather suited to our line of work. Though I would like you to not let it get it to your head." He fixed me with a rather chilling glare. "You are far from the quality that we would prefer in our members, so it would fall to me to train you."

And the fact that I did not get a choice in the whole thing probably meant that I had to either pass or die trying. Oh joy.

"That said, I'd like to formally to induct you into the Saboteur Corps."

Wait.I blinked.

Saboteur Corps, as in go behind enemy lines and destroy their facilities kind of saboteur?

That didn't sound too bad however, as I would be receiving training first before I was to be deployed. That would mean that I would be spending more time in Iwa, away from the war until they had at least deemed me ready.

I could get behind that.

"Understood." I replied, "may I know how I'd be trained?"

Wataru grinned at me, "not so fast. First we need to get you outfitted and supplied. Then I'll explain as we head to Amegakure."

I widened my eyes in surprise. "Amegakure? But sensei, didn't you say that I'd be training first?"

"Yeah," He chuckled, "it's a bit unorthodox, but with the war going on, High Command wants every able-bodied personnel to be deployed, so I'd be training you as we carry out our missions."

I opened my mouth as if to object, but closed it when I realized how futile it would be in the end. It would seem that things had just taken a worse turn for me…

If there was a god, I would really appreciate it if I could somehow get out of this situation.

* * *

**Hello everybody, Elusith here.**

**Yup, thing's ain't looking too up for Yuuyake, then again, she's a conscripted child soldier, so things aren't looking up for her at all. Anyways, I hope that you all enjoyed the chapter!**

**** I'd also like to thank you all for reading this fic, and if you have any criticism, questions or thoughts about this fic, please leave a review!****

* * *

** EmmieSauce: Thanks! Hope you're enjoying the story so far!**

** SalemTheSpeakerOfTruth: I know how it feels too, it is really hard to focus during guard duty all the time.**


	6. Undercover I

**I do not own Naruto, only this story and its OCs**

* * *

True to Wataru-sensei's word, we began training as soon as we left the vicinity of the Iwa compound. Turns out that all he had already received a mission from the headquarters and had felt that it was easy enough that he could afford to babysit a genin while on the job.

Yes, those were his exact words. Turns out that he was as blunt as they come.

As such, I soon found myself walking down a mountain path with him, dressed in the single sleeved red Iwa kimono and leather armor. Even after putting it on, I still could not really tell why the uniform only had a single sleeve. It just felt so impractical and stood out more like a fashion statement than anything else.

Not to mention how bloody uncomfortable it feels. And weird.

That said, I was very surprised that it was not getting in the way of my handseals training which Wataru-sensei had given to me.

There were three steps to be followed when a shinobi wants to use any chakra consuming techniques. The first step was to gather the chakra, the second was to focus on the form that you wish for it to take and the last would be to mould it into the desired form.

Handseals were an integral part of the second step that were used by shinobis to bring out their chakra for different techniques. Out of the twelve standard handseals, each handseal actually served a different purpose for different techniques. There were some who were commonly associated with a particular nature transformation, like fire techniques requiring the tiger handseal in their preparation.

Hence, my assignment was to practice each of them while walking alongside him. Ten sets of each seal in succession while keeping in stride to him, though occasionally, he would call out a set himself and expect me to deliver the corresponding handseals.

It was tougher than you would think it would be. Especially since I was not allowed to channel my chakra through each handseal, going against all of my chakra control exercises that I had taken in the Iwa War Institution.

_Ox, Rat, Snake, Monkey, Bird, Dragon, Dog, Horse,Tiger, Boar, Ram, Hare. _I thought as I formed the handseals as I walked alongside him. _Ox, Rat, Snake, Monkey, Bird, Drago-_

"Faster, Yuuyake!" Wataru called out without even looking back at me. "Handseals are the fundamentals to all sorts of techniques. I expect you to be at least capable of going through with the motions by the time we reached the border."

Well, it ain't that easy for me to be doing this, was what I wanted to say, except that showing such disrespect to a superior would be quite unbecoming of me. So instead I merely nodded my head and replied. "Yes Sensei."

"Good, now get on with it."

"Yes Sensei."

_Ox, Rat, Snake, Monkey, Bird, Dragon, Dog, Horse,Tiger, Boar, Ram, Hare. Ox, Rat, Snake, Monkey, Bird, Dragon, Dog, Horse,Tiger, Boar, Ram, Hare._

"I said, speed up!"

"Yes, Sensei." I replied, groaning internally.

* * *

It took me a full week of constant training before I finally got the hang of transitioning from one handseal to another while on the move. It was then that I finally realized that Wataru-sensei was actually a demon in disguise. My hands were sore and tired from all that constant twelve hour long movement and I had barely sat down for an evening break when Wataru sensei merely dropped a long wooden stick in front of me.

"Pick it up and stand up." He said, a smirk on his face as he glared at me. Something in his eyes washed away all protests that I would have wanted to voice, so I meekly picked up the stick in my aching hands and stood upright.

"Tell me, Yuuyake, what are you holding in your hand?"

"Ummm, a wooden pole?"

"Wrong!" He barked aloud, making me jump. "That's a Jo, it's not like your everyday branch from the tree." He reached out and grabbed the pole, rapping his knuckles against it as he did so. "Hear that? It's made of solid hardwood, meaning that it isn't easy to break when you smack someone with it. Of course, it'd become even more durable when I teach you how to channel your chakra into it, but first," His eyes glimmered, "I'm going to teach you how to use it."

"Uh, sensei?" I raised my hand.

"What?"

"Why a Jo?" I asked. This thing was kind of out of the blue, in fact, I didn't even remember telling him that I wanted to specialize in a weapon. In response, he merely grabbed me by the hair as he bent down to look me in the eye.

"Because you're short."

EXCUSE ME? I raised an eyebrow incredulously. What had that got to do with anything?

"Your size is a liability out on the battlefield." Sensei snorted, "so I have determined that you would need a weapon to make up for your lack of reach when we had to resort to hand-to-hand combat." He eyed me.

"But sensei, I could always stay away and attack from range." I pointed out.

"Heh," Wataru-sensei snorted, "and _when_, not if, an opponent catches up to you, what are you going to do? Especially if you could not run away?"

"Uhhh…"

"Exactly, that's what the jo is for." Wataru-sensei said and released the Jo, folding his arms as he leaned back. "Now give me your best hit."

I looked at him blankly, hit him? Like, hit him 'hit him'?

Oh.

Oh right, he's a jounin, this was one of _those_ training sequences, wasn't it?

Those very painful training sequences…

* * *

"Ow." I winced as I rubbed the ointment on one of the many bruises that I had accrued over the last week. It would seem that Wataru-sensei would appear to be a rather physical teacher. And his sucker punches hurt like hell.

While we were travelling, he made me practice handseals on the move, now in certain sets that he had provided me instructions on and during the evening, right before we settled down for the night, he would provide rather physical combat training. Of course, he had allowed me to use ninjutsu during our training sessions.

Except that he did not even give me a proper opening to use them save for the simplest of techniques. Each time I attempted to use one of my Earth Releases, he would appear before me with a body flicker and swing at me, either interrupting my technique by knocking me off my feet or forcing me to break off the handseals to block with the Jo.

And boy was it hard to protect myself with that weapon. The four feet tall weapon was quite heavy and hard to wield, especially with how small I was compared to it. Still, at the very least, Wataru-sensei was quick to give me pointers, telling me how to transition from a defensive block to a quick strike.

In short, the training was as impractical as Wataru-sensei seemed to be impatient. I mean, he was expecting me to pretty much learn how to use the jo by the end of the week, something which I must say feels rather impossible considering how much progress I had made.

I mean, I could still hit someone really hard and pull back in time, but telling me to transition from defense to attack after I had only held the weapon for a week like I was some sort of child prodigy was just insane.

I was a smart girl, with loads of common sense, but I was definitely no prodigy.

Still, I had a quota to meet. I grimaced as I picked up the pole and began to move through the motions as instructed by Wataru-sensei. This, of course, drew the unwanted attention of said jounin who was just returning from his 'break'.

"Ah, practicing again?" Wataru-sensei grinned approvingly as he gestured at me, "come, you can try again."

Well, getting better at fighting would increase my chances at survival. If I could survive my training that was.

Or if I could last just long enough to not attempt to kill Wataru-sensei.

* * *

It was a month later when we had finally reached the Iwa-Ame border, and let it be known that I had never been so happy to see hostile territory. Primarily because this would mean that Wataru-sensei would not beat me to an inch of my life each day from now on as we would need to conserve our energy for any potential fights that we might be involved in.

Of course, it was still a rather stressful experience, though I must say that despite how much I had actually disliked Wataru-sensei for hitting me really, really hard. The man does indeed know what he was doing.

The first order of business was for us to go undercover. While I was not exactly acing my Kunoichi lessons back in the war Institution, I at least still remember how to properly put on a kimono and act like a brat who had been spoiled by her father. In case anyone missed the obvious, Wataru-sensei would be playing that particular role.

More than anything, however, was I surprised by the fact that sensei had actually had a kimono my size that did not look as if it came from a second hand shop. My hand actually trembled for a moment as I held that piece of yellow clothing that was worth more than I had ever saved in the short and pathetic timeframe that I had existed in this world.

I really hope that he would not ask me to pay for this if I tore it by accident...

"What are you doing?" Sensei suddenly hissed, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked at him in puzzlement, primarily because I had not even noticed him changing into a plain blue kimono himself. "hurry up and get changed!"

I nodded and moved to undress before I blinked, remembering something and turned around. "Uh, sensei? Even including the wire mesh?" I asked, indicating the cloth armor reinforced by wire which I wore under my Iwa uniform.

"Yes, especially that." Sensei replied.

"Right." I nodded before turning around and quickly swapping my current Iwa standard attire for the much more comfortable wool (or cotton) kimono which sensei had brought along for me.

Before long, the two of us walked next to each other along a dirt filled road within the Ame border. Surprisingly though, despite the fact that there was a war going on, the place was rather peaceful. Almost serene, even. In fact, the few people we met on the road hardly even gave us a glance, merely carrying on with their daily lives as though nothing were happening. There was a grandpa escorting a trio of kids, two boys and a girl, the tanned boy and the black haired girl were running around while the blonde kid was leading the grandpa along by the hand. Then there were a couple of black haired youthful men who were pulling along a small wagon that was filled to the brim with hay. A young couple who greeted Wataru-sensei cheerfully (I was surprised that they knew him), and many, many more.

It was as though there wasn't even a war, despite the fact that the only reason why I was out here was because that there _was_ one.

Still, I played my part as best as I could, clinging onto Wataru-sensei's hand like I was the niece that he was asked to take care of by his siblings. After all, on the off chance that there would be a conflict breaking out right here, I would rather not risk being the one that gave myself away as a shinobi from the start.

After all, anything could happen in a war.

"Here we are," Wataru-sensei said as a small village came into sight. "Tenmen village. I trust you know what to do?"

I squeezed his hand, letting him know that I still remembered what we had rehearsed. Tenmen village was a place where sensei had frequented plenty of times while undercover as a traveling medicine man by the name of Muto Shiki, while I would be posing as his niece, one Ana Shiki. It was here where we would stay for a few days before we would receive our mission.

"Good," He smiled, the very act feeling me with an uncomfortable chill. It was weird, seeing Wata- I mean, Muto, smile. The last month I had with him was beyond scary, to be perfectly honest with you. Though that had more to do with his more physical training than anything else.

It was quite… traumatizing.

The village was a small and quaint little place. Wooden and stone structures made up the bulk of the place, and the place was relatively peaceful save for the village square, which apparently doubles as a marketplace as well. Full of stalls and people, the square was quite literally bustling with life.

"You should have a look at this place later, Ana-san." 'Muto' said as he pointed at the marketplace, "they have many interesting things here."

I nodded. It was obvious why he would want me to hang out in this place. From the looks of it, it would appear that not only the locals of Tenmen frequent the marketplace of the village, seeing as there were people who were dressed way too finely to be from this place, most of whom seemed to be manning the stalls, meaning that they were most definitely merchants that had travelled here to sell their wares here.

And merchants were notorious for the gossip that they could bring to the table, meaning that this place here would be an information heaven.

"Yes, Muto-jisan." I replied, taking in my surroundings and committing it to memory. Especially those stalls that were being manned by those aforementioned merchants.

The inn that we were staying in was a quaint little place. It was a six story stone building that seemed to have about eight small rooms on each of its floors, with their own inlaid tatami mats and two communal toilets.

Not exactly the standard of those hotels which I had seen in Iwagakure, but then again, we weren't exactly here for a vacation. And as if to lend credence to that statement, the first thing which 'Muto' did once we were settled in our room was to pass me a book.

"Your parents told me to pass you this, so that you can pass the time." Lies, obviously. What would have passed for a picture book was in fact a very intricately written coding tutorial. You would think that this was the sort of thing that they would teach us back in the Iwa War Institution. Instead, what they actually taught us was how to decipher each of the coding guides. You see, each of Iwa's divisions uses their own coding guide which changes at irregular times, but uses a universal code which would _decode_ the coding guide which would in turn teach us what the division's current codes were for the month.

Talk about excessive.

"Okay," I faked a cheer as I received the book with two 'eager' hands. Yay, homework on the job…

Well, at least I would not be assigned any mission for the next few days at least. So that means that I could at the very least focus on this and information gathering at the same time. I mean, non-combat work and purely academic study. What's the worst that could happen?

…

…

…

I just jinxed myself, didn't I?

* * *

**Hello all,**

**Shorter chapter than usual, because exams. Hope you all like it tho!  
**

**Please leave a review if you have any ********criticism, questions or thoughts about this fic!******


	7. Undercover II

**I do not own Naruto, only this story and its OCs.**

* * *

For a civilian village of a rather small country, Tenmen Village's marketplace was rather full of life this season. Merchants and other smallfolk haggled and bargained over products of interest even as gossip was exchanged by their neighbours about the latest news.

Of course, almost none of this had anything to do with the ongoing shinobi war, which was surprising enough, at least to me. I had always thought that with how integral shinobis had been to this world, the common populace would be much more aware of what was actually going on here. From the past few days of studying them however, I had come to realise that the contrary was true. Many of these folks were acting as if they had never seen a shinobi before in their lives. Which was kind of the point, I realised, considering the fact that shinobis were supposed to be operating in the dark, or at least they were supposed to be.

Still, that had meant at least seven days of pure boredom in that regard, at least I had made some headway figuring out the code from the picture book which I held in my hand. Of course, that meant that each day was much more boring than the last, since I had almost nothing better to do than to listen to idle gossip and study.

It almost made me miss those pain-filled training days that I had spent with sensei. Keyword being 'almost'. No way in hell would I actually wish that sort of experience on anyone.

Yet.

Each day was the same routine. I woke up, ate whatever breakfast that sensei had prepared for me, head to the market and 'read' that picture book that I had, having lunch in the process and then return in the evening and turn in just after dinner. From time to time, I would chance upon a meeting that 'Muto' was having with one of his clients, and was either sent back to my room or out for an errand.

How many of his clients were actually who they say they were, I do not know, but I did know enough that I was sure some of them were not so much coming here for medical attention. Still, I did not want to be blamed for jeopardizing the mission, so I merely did as I was told, dutifully.

Of course, I could not help but overhear some of the conversations Sensei had with some of his 'clients'. He probably knew that I overheard, but had yet to do anything about it. Hopefully, that would stay as the status quo for the time being.

Though, paranoid as I was, it did make me sleep a lot more lightly these past few days.

Still, at least the days went by as peacefully as it could get. It would appear that kids hanging out by their lonesome would be a rather common sight around here, considering that everyone was going out by their daily lives and not bothering with the little girl that was reading a book on top of a pile of boxes in a corner of the market square.

Well, everyone did, until an old man came waltzing down the marketplace by his lonesome. Or at least I thought that he was an old man, then I had to correct myself because I had merely thought so because his hair was a stark white. That and the fact that he seemed rather familiar, though it was kind of hard to miss a man in a dark blue kimono, with red markings on his face who had white hair and was nearly two meters tall walking from stall to stall asking questions.

Given the way that he kept glancing about, he probably knew that someone was looking at him, an obvious sign that he was most definitely not an ordinary villager or merchant. Regardless, I kept my eyes half-trained on him as he meandered about the marketplace, making sure to look back down at my book whenever he shot a glance towards me. Still, despite my best efforts, he somehow figured out that I was the one who was watching me, given the way that he made his way down to me.

Why did I have the feeling of deja vu? Like seriously, every fiber of my being was literally yelling at me to run away from the approaching man. Though I did manage to quell the desire to do so. Still, I could not help but feel a sense of trepidation as the man wandered right up to me without any delay.

"Hey there, kid." he grinned, setting off alarm bells of every kind imaginable in my brain. Still, there was nothing that I could do about it. I was just an eight year old kid, and this guy looked to be at least twice my age. You did not get to that age without some kind of experience or skill in our line of work.

Right, so what were my options? Running was out of the question, stamina, speed and all that. And ignoring him would only raise more questions. So I suppose that my best chance of surviving would be to merely act like I was a mere kid my age and not antagonise him.

"Hello sir," I looked up at him, giving him my most innocent smile. Which was rather hard to do, somehow. Smiling was hard, who knew? "Dad told me not to talk to strangers."

Of course I couldn't find it in myself to be polite. Also, I didn't know that I could lie so well. Though it was technically not a lie, considering that I remember that my previous life dad did say something to that effect, at some point.

I think.

He looked taken aback and maybe a little hurt at how blunt I had been to him, but rallied quickly and grinned. "Well, my name's Gama."

_Who names their kid after a toad? _I thought, but merely shrugged as I returned my attention to my book. "Right." He seemed somewhat miffed by the fact that I was ignoring, but while I didn't want to be rude, I was not exactly a professional liar by any means, so not talking to him would probably be my best bet at not giving anything away.

"So, what's your name, little girl?"

"Ana." _DAMNIT!_

Well, at least I gave him my fake name instead of the real one, so that's something I had going for me. Still, that hardly changed the fact that the man who was standing in front me was probably a shinobi and also quite possibly capable of outing my identity.

"Nice name." He grinned. "Though why are you out here by yourself?"

"Reading." I replied curtly. Keeping my replies short and straight to the point was possibly my only chance at making sure that I didn't out myself.

"Right," He smiled awkwardly, possibly because he was put off by how one sided this conversation had been. Sighing a bit, he crouched down, so that he could look at me in the eye, or at least as best as he could when looking at a child who had kept her eyes focused on the picture book she held in her hands. "Anyway," He grinned openly, probably in an effort to put me at ease, "I just want to ask, have you seen anybody around?"

"What kind of people?" I asked, meeting his black eyes as I tilted my head quizzically.

"Well, funny people who do nothing in the marketplace."

"Like you?" I shot back.

"Well…" He sighed exasperatedly, "kind of? Still, have you seen them?" He continued. "Especially those talking to kids around your age."

There were people like those? I frowned as I thought back to what I had seen in the marketplace the past few days. Nope, nothing of the sort which I could remember off the top of my head. Still, should I tell him? I considered the thought a little longer before shrugging. It was not like not knowing anything could jeopardize my work here.

After all, my job was merely to observe and report back. Nothing major, so long as I did not alert this man to what I actually was.

"Nope." I shook my head, before returning to reading my book.

"Right." The man sighed, before he returned back to his full (rather imposing) height. "Thanks for your help, Ana." He nodded before striding off.

"Kay~" I replied as I waved him off. Still, it took all of my willpower to not sigh with relief and immediately rush back to sensei to tell him about what had happened. After all, I might still be under surveillance.

Still, the three hours that I had to endure was probably the longest which I ever had to experience. Still, it was routine for me to stay here till the sun began to set, no sense breaking it now and giving myself away.

Honestly though, I had never thought that there would come a day when I would actually feel comforted by the sight of Sensei. If anyone had even suggested the possibility to me, I would have immediately called that person an idiot.

Yet now, the sight of him reclining by the window as he smoked a cigarette was something of a relief to me.

Wait.

Sensei smokes? Huh, you learn something new everyday.

"Welcome back, Ana-chan." He smiled at me as I entered the room.

"I'm home, Muto-jisan." I replied.

"How was the market today?"

"Same as usual." I replied, "though a funny man came up to me." His eyes lit up with interest, seeing as 'funny man' was our code for 'possible shinobi'. "He's very tall," I tapped my hand on my knees twice before I sat down, meaning _two meters_, "and had white hair. Was asking about strangers talking to kids."

"Huh," He snorted, "sounds like a hypocrite."

"Yup." I agreed, "funny man."

"No," Sensei smiled as he corrected me. "He was a weird man."

'Weird man' was code for 'shinobi'.

Well, shit.

* * *

To be honest, I was really glad that I did not run into that man for the next two days. Unfortunately, on the third day, things turned out to be much, much more exciting.

That was sarcasm, by the way.

The day started normally, clear skies, beautiful and scorching sun and the same, bustling marketplace. As per usual, I strayed to my usual spot at the pile of unused boxes with my picture book.

Come to think of it, wasn't it weird that I keep coming here with the same picture book? Eh, I shrugged off the thought, I could always attribute it to the 'fact' that my 'uncle' could not afford it.

I stayed there, observing the marketplace as I had done for the past few days, when a small cough caught my attention. Looking up, I beheld a black haired boy who looked to be in his teens smiling down at me. And unlike the man I had met only a few days prior, I could easily tell how fake his smile had seemed at a glance.

"Hey there," He said, "what are you doing here alone?"

"Reading." I replied, as I looked down back at my book. Out of the corner of my eye, however, I could just make out a small bulge at the side of the pants that he was wearing. Probably a kunai holster, which would make this boy a shinobi.

"Well, I know a place with more picture books," He said, "interested?"

Seriously? I facepalmed internally, this boy might be much older than me, but evidently he was quite inexperienced in this field of work. Not to claim that I was an expert myself, seeing that my preferred method of staying covert was just to avoid communications in the first place, but this boy was quite literally breaking every single rule in the metaphorical book for spies.

Not to mention that he sounded quite like a pedophile with that last sentence.

"Not really." _Please go away, please go away._

To be honest, I should have been paying close attention to him. As it was, I noticed too late that the marketplace was empty, the sounds of life and bustling thong that normally occupies the place absent and gone.

_Genjutsu!_

Instinctively, I tried to bring my hands together so that I could disrupt my chakra flow in an attempt to dispel the techniques, only to find that for some reason, my body would not obey me.

I was trapped.

Not good.

* * *

**Hello all,**

**Turns out writing does wonders for getting rid of stress accumulated from work. Seriously, four assignments to be done in the space of a week ain't no joke. **

**Anyways, hope you all like this chapter! And stay safe!**

**Regards,  
Elusith**


	8. Undercover III

**I do not own Naruto, only this story and its OCs**

* * *

When I woke up, it was to a throbbing headache, the sound of whimpering and crying and a sore back.

What in the hell had I been up to?

I winced as memories began flooding back in. Right, I was caught in a genjutsu and was subsequently knocked out. Sitting up, I blinked as my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness that I was in.

Oh wait. Wasn't I a ninja? Berating myself for being so forgetful, I concentrated my chakra on my eyes. It allowed for a plethora of nifty techniques, like allowing one to gather a sort of 'nightvision'.

Though I could not say that I liked what I saw in the darkness either.

Based on the texture of the walls which I could see, I was probably in a cave of some sorts. However, the meat of the issue was the shadowy outlines of crying kids which lined those walls. Based on how well I could see, there were at the very least a couple dozen kids here…

Wait, how did they get a couple dozen kids stuck here?

Never mind, question for another time. Given by how dark the entire place was, it would seem that there was no way in, nor was there any way out. Of course, the fact that the air did not taste as stale would mean that there was an opening here somewhere.

Right, this would be about time that I heightened my senses to find the proverbial opening where the air currents were entering from, and figure out how to get out from here. Small problem though. I have absolutely no idea how to proceed with that first step. I mean, sure, I got the principle down somehow, and while the instructors back at the Iwa War Institution had talked about that technique once or twice, it was not like they ever bothered to demonstrate it to our benefit.

Of course, there was the nuclear option, basically using a good old earth release to break myself out of here. Except that there would be more than a few problems on that front. First up, I have no idea where I was, and no way of determining that factor, seeing how I was quite literally holed up in a cave. Second, enemies. I frowned as I tried to recall what I know. Needless to say, there were enemy shinobis involved on this front. Only question was, how many? I did know that there was one, but despite that, all I know was that he was a genjutsu user. Apart from that, nothing much.

So yeah. Not a lot of information to work with. Talk about disappointment. Not to mention that I have no idea why they were gathering kids in this place? It was obvious that they weren't picky, considering that they kidnapped me, and they most certainly had not bothered to check if I was a shinobi from a neighbouring country. That probably means that my cover was safe. Still, why were they bringing in children here?

Child labor might be an option, but considering that shinobis were involved, I highly doubt it. Funny thought that, child soldiers were okay, but child slavery was not allowed? Talk about double standards.

Anyway, I digress. Returning my attention to the matter at hand, I frowned as I tried to figure out just why the hell were a group of shinobi involved in this?

…

…

…

Nope. I got nothing. I sighed as I leaned back against the wall, trying to shut out the whimpering of the other children in here.

Well, guess I would need to channel my inner damsel in distress then…

* * *

Did you know that it was really hard to cry? Like, make yourself cry on purpose. I never realised just how hard it was to _force _yourself to whimper and cry. As such, I merely settled for curling myself into a ball at one corner and trying to fall asleep among all those insufferable whining the other kids were making.

Not that I could blame them for not acting like I would. I mean, I was the one who had gone through soldier training here after all. Probably the only one too.

Still, it was not like there was much for me to do anyways, so I merely sat in my corner, whiling away my time as I waited for something, just _anything that was not children crying or urinating themselves, _to happen.

Good thing I was somewhat used to the smell (a fact which distressed me to no end) thanks to latrine duty back at the Iwa War Institution, so I could just drift off into a light sleep in my little spot away from the rest of them.

I did not know how long it took, since my concept of time was screwed up greatly by the fact that I was underground but quite some time had certainly passed when a faint rumbling shook me from my slumber.

Looking up with somewhat blurry eyes, I shook my head so that I could focus on the crack that appeared on the far end of the wall. Children of all ages yelped as they scrambled backwards away from the shifting rock. When the whole ordeal was done, the group of us frightened and smelly children huddled together, a fact which annoyed me to no end, partly because of the smell and the wailing.

Thankfully, the crying grounded to a halt when a man walked into the cave from the two meter wide opening that had appeared. He was not dressed in any particular uniform, just a brown tunic and pants with sandals, a red bandana and a sword at his waist to round off the mountain bandit look. Call my suspicious though, because I found his walk a bit to springy, as if he would pounce elsewhere at any time and his look too sharp to be that of a common civilian-turned-bandit.

This was a man who had probably seen quite a bit of action before and had learned from it. After all, that paranoid-esque look in his eyes reminded me a little bit too much of some of the elderly instructors back in the academy, especially those who had lived through the First Shinobi War.

He walked up to the middle of the cave, shot the group of us a glare which caused more than a few of the kids around me to whimper but thankfully, none of them cried aloud. Then he began counting off how many of us there were.

Considering the fact that they were counting us off, it means that they either have to meet a quota or that they were careful enough to make sure that they were not missing any kids. Either way it meant that we were important enough that they had to keep track of us.

Only question was, for what purpose?

Why did they need us? And I was not going to pull any of those 'let me go home' and 'what do you want with us?' cliches, those were an instant death sentence for someone with my acting capabilities.

So I did the next best thing. Which was nothing. Yes, I just sat there and watched the man as he went about doing what he was supposed to be doing.

I would not deny it if you did call me a sort of coward.

"Thirty three!" He suddenly yelled out the corridor, calling out the number of kids in the cave.

"Looks like the boss would be pleased this time around." A voice replied from within the tunnel. "Get back out here then."

The man left as quickly as he had arrived, leaving the kids around me to let out the wails that they had been holding in, while I mulled over what had just transpired. It was evident that the people here wanted us for something, the only question was, what?

For what reason would they want a bunch of kids ranging from six to ten years old? At this point, the only conclusion which I could draw was child labor.

Sighing, I reclined upon the wall again as I cursed my lack of information about the current situation. I didn't even know what kind of situation in Ame that would make even a modicum of sense about _this._

Well, back to channeling my inner damsel in distress, I suppose. I better conserve what little energy I could, after all, it was not like they were feeding us while we were in here.

Hopefully, I did not end up making a habit out of this.

* * *

Not a lot of time must have passed since my capture, given how I was not crawling about on the ground like a starving dog. Sure, my limbs feel weak and I was rather hungry, but unlike some of the other kids who were already lying down on the ground, it would appear that my survival training had definitely paid off. Though I would still like to say that I was probably not going to be winning any fights anytime soon. Even against a Genin that was fresh out of the institution like I was.

Still, I was getting rather dangerously low on my ability to keep myself conscious and ignore the steadily increasing feeling in my stomach. Not to mention how hard it generally was to not think about food when all you could do in here without wasting any energy was to merely ponder your thoughts.

"What I would give for something to happen." I muttered as I closed my eyes. Sleep would be good, a fine distraction from my growling stomach.

I just hope that it would be enough to keep me functional for however long it would take for my captors to initiate whatever kind of plan which they had.

After all, I'd want to escape while I still have the energy to do so.

Thankfully, my sleep was dreamless, allowing me to wake up swiftly when a slight tremor ran through the ground. Ignoring my growling stomach, I look to the part of the wall where the tunnel had appeared. To be honest, I have no idea how I was going to escape from here in the first place. I didn't even know which direction Tenmen village was from my current location.

As I said, not really a situation that I would want to be in.

That said, something was weird about this whole thing. For one, the tremors in the ground were steadily increasing, but they were not originating from that point in the wall as they had earlier. In fact, they were coming from the ceiling.

Oh wait, the ceiling.

As if on cue, a small section of the ceiling crumbled, the debris raining down on the kids sitting directly under it though it surprisingly did not hurt any as it was mostly dirt that fell. Most definitely some kind of Earth Release.

Focusing, I could just barely make out the shouts echoing down from the hole in the ceiling of the cave. Whatever that was going on up there was probably a fight of some kind, though it didn't take me long to make out the sound of someone climbing down towards us.

A rescuer, perhaps?

My guess was validated when a boy that seemed only a year or two older than me slid down on a rope from the gap in the ceiling. He wasn't wearing a shinobi's hitai-ate, though it was obvious enough to me from his movements alone that he had received at least some manner of shinobi training.

"Hiya," the boy said brightly, "come with me, one at a time. I'm here to help you escape!"

Straight to the point and efficient. I could appreciate that. As the other kids hesitated, I quickly stepped up, holding my hand out to him. The boy merely gave me a reassuring smile, making me lower my guard enough to be surprised when he slung me across his back in a rather humiliating manner before he began darting up the tunnel in the ceiling.

On account of the fact that hitting him would probably result in our rather painful descent back into the cave, I resisted the urge to punch him across the face for carrying me like one would carry a sack of rice.

At least no one I knew was going to know about this.

I hope.

The entire journey took all of ten seconds, and _boy_ had I forgotten how stuffy it was in that cave and just how good the fresh air felt.

"Well done, Mamoru!" A rather boisterous voice boomed, causing me to look up at its source, only for my eyes to widen in recognition. There were a few patches of blood on his kimono now, and he had replaced the purple tattoos on his face with two red lines which ran vertically over his eyes, but otherwise, he looked exactly like the man that had talked to me in the marketplace just the other day.

Well, I did know that he was a shinobi, though I would admit that I did not expect to be rescued by him.

"Now get back down there and bring the others up as soon as possible! Minato and Ruri aren't going to be distracting those idiots for much longer!"

Hold up, what did he just say? I looked at the white haired man. _He just said Minato._ As in, Namikaze Minato? Fourth Hokage of Konoha?

Sure, there might have been a chance that this 'Minato' might be an entirely different person entirely. Except that I had just realized something else at this point. This man who was standing before me and giving orders to the young bald boy, actually looked really familiar.

Long white hair, boisterous attitude, markings on face. While I had not seen his entry in a bingo book yet, this man could only be the Sannin, Jiraiya.

Which means that this was a Konoha team.

_What was a Konoha team doing rescuing kids in Ame territory?_ I wondered, only to freeze up when another, much more terrifying realization, struck me.

A Konoha team had just rescued me, an Iwa-nin.

Shit.

* * *

**Hello all,**

**This chapter was really hard to write, mostly because I had to divide my time between my assignments and this. Anyways, I hope that you enjoy it!**

**Please leave a review if you have any ********criticism, questions or thoughts about this fic!******

******Regards,  
Elusith******


	9. Undercover IV

**I do not own Naruto, only this story and its OCs.**

* * *

_Shit shit shitshitshitshitshit._ Never mind the reprimand that I was going to receive from Wataru-sensei because I had needed saving, the more pressing issue at the current moment the fact that I had been saved by the _enemy._ Well, it was not like Iwa and Konoha had officially declared war upon one another yet, though it was still inevitable.

That didn't mean that Konoha and Iwa shinobis were on friendly terms with each other. That said, we were on speaking terms though, just the kind that tended to involve kunais and shurikens.

So, not exactly in a reassuring position here myself.

Still, it was not like there was anything that I could do about it now, except keep my head down and hope that they did not find me out.

Jiraiya, or at least the person who I believe was Jiraiya, was walking about, trying to calm down the kids brought up by that Mamoru 'boy'. Still, it would appear that he was rather not that good with children, seeing how most of them were still bawling senselessly after being rescued from the cave that we were in.

I should be grateful that their attention was solely focused on keeping the kids quiet. Less chance of him noticing me out of the entire bunch of piss-smelling and wailing kids.

After a rather long while, most of the children were reduced to sniffles and were being corralled by the two of them towards god knows where. Well, considering that this was jiraiya, if it was _indeed _Jiraiya the Sannin and not another person that I had mistaken him for, there was a high chance that he was bringing us to the nearest town, probably the one that was acting as his headquarters.

The two of them were talking to one another once in a while, though despite my curiosity as to what they were talking about, I stayed away from them as much as I could. After all, this was not within my job scope, and I had hardly enough training to remain inconspicuous like those fellows from the infiltration corps.

Still, it was easy for me to blend in with the rest of the children around me, using them as a form of camouflage as I watched Jiraiya and the boy who was probably his student from afar.

Regardless, despite not being able to hear much from my current position, there were other ways to gather information, as taught to me by Sensei. From their expressions alone, one could tell that they were worried and paranoid, either for their two missing teammates or the current situation for their mission. It was also easy to tell how tired the boy was, given the comparison between Jiraiya's and his movements.

At least I know that they were focused enough on whatever it was they were doing to look for any supposed 'plants' within the hostages that they had rescued. That would mean that I was safe, at least for the time being.

About half an hour of trekking later, Jiraiya had called for a break before leaving his student/subordinate in charge of us. A terrible move, in my opinion, since there was no way that a single eight year old could handle an entire crowd of starving, tired and probably spoilt kids his age.

Then again, that was probably why they were so docile and willing to listen to his directions now. In fact, most of the children were too tired to even bother raising a fuss about whatever that was going on right now, instead choosing to literally collapsed where they stand as the accumulated fatigue over the past few days of imprisonment and subsequent rescue caught up with them.

This in turn sent the bald kid into a panic, as he hurried from child to child, making sure that they were alright. To be honest, I found his reaction amusing, though I was sure that this child would probably not last long in our line of work.

After all, in his rush to ensure that all the kids were safe and presumably uninjured, he had neglected to stay on alert in what was still probably enemy territory. As such, he completely failed to notice the two figures that were creeping up towards us from the side.

I tensed slightly, ready to flee at the first sign of trouble, though I quickly relaxed as the two presences made themselves visible by landing among the rescued kids. One was a black haired girl, who was dressed in a weird high collared purple kimono, complete with combat pants, then there was the blond kid in a white jacket, who I was almost one hundred percent confident was Minato Namikaze now that I had seen him in the flesh.

It feels almost weird to recognize him, to be honest. The feeling was hard to place, like Jiraiya, it feels extremely awkward to recognize somebody despite having only seen them for the first time. Unlike Jiraiya however, I just had this nagging feeling that I know this person somehow somewhere despite not knowing anything about him save for the fact that he was going to be a war hero who would die later on.

Damn stupid fragmented memories from the past life. Why couldn't they be reliable for a change and tell me something concrete instead of something like, 'oh, this guy looks really important?'.

"Mamoru-san," Minato said as he straightened, "that was careless. What would have happened if we were enemies?"

"Ah, Minato! Sorry!" The other boy replied, almost too hastily. Guess that means that Minato was the leader of their little trio, if one did not account for Jiraiya.

"Please don't make the same mistake again," Minato sighed, "it's our first B-ranked mission after all."

_B-ranked?_ My eyes widened in surprise, Konoha's B-ranked missions were normally reserved for chunins and above, or at least those with the required skill that could take such a mission on and survive.

_Guess I should not underestimate any of them. _Was my thought as my eyes flitted to each of them, taking in as much information as I could about them. While my mission was also conducted in enemy territory, the fact that they were supposed to _engage _enemies during the course of their mission while I was supposed to _avoid _mine definitely means that their skill level was above mine.

Simply put, I was effectively boned if they found me out. Yay me.

Now that I have added incentive to _not_ be found out, I busied myself staring at the ground as I listened to Minato giving out instructions to his teammates. Got to hand out credit where it was due, to tell the truth, the boy really knows what he was doing, as expected from the future Yondaime Hokage.

Guess prodigies do exist in this world.

No, I was not bitter about it.

Still, then again, there was not much for me to do, to be honest, except sit around and wait for something to happen. To be honest, I wasn't exactly picky so long that it would provide enough distraction for me to hightail out of this place.

Less than ten minutes later, I got my wish.

It happened extremely quickly, one moment, the kids were all huddled together in a rather defensible clearing chosen by Konoha shinobi, then later, screams and crying broke out as six figures pushed themselves past the foliage around us, two adults each staring down a single kid from Konoha as they moved into position, surrounding the bunch of us.

Words were exchanged, the usual ultimatum given by one party, only to be refuted by the other. In fact, it did not take long before it devolved into a fight to the death as negotiations broke down.

As the children huddled together, I found my chance when one of the kids took their eyes off of the group of us for a second. With a quick handseal, I switched places with a branch on one of the trees on the outskirts of the clearing. Hiding myself among the foliage, I quietly watched the battle going on between the three shinobis and their six adversaries. At least two of the six seemed to have been trained in the ninja arts, given their movements as they danced about the clearing. Still, despite their numbers, it would seem to be a close fight, one that I would have wanted to watch till the end, except that Jiraiya would be returning anytime soon, and I was almost certain that he would have noticed me hiding among the trees, which would in turn expose me as a shinobi.

"Better get going when the going's good." I muttered as I turned away from the engagement. Besides, sensei would most definitely want to hear about this current development. Human trafficking in Ame conducted by a group of unknown shinobis and a Konoha team working to foil them led by none other than _the _Jiraiya? It was quite a bit of information to work with, and as such, it would definitely be a shame if I would not make it back to provide him with it.

Now, which way was Tenmen Village again?

* * *

_Six steps. _That was as many steps as Minato would need to stab his kunai into the throat of the red-haired man standing right before him, though given how the man was watching him intently, Minato merely settled for staring down his adversary, watching intently for his next move. Having already downed the other teen that he was facing, the eight year old freshly minted chunin stared down his opponent, a muscular tanned man dressed in a red kimono and holding aloft a blade as tall as Minato.

It was easy for him to tell that the man had shinobi training, given how efficient and unorthodox he was with his movements. In fact, now that Minato had time to properly analyse his opponent, he had his suspicions that the red haired man, who had yet to introduce himself, had at the very least received a sword training style similar to the Kumo nins that his team had faced on the last mission.

Still, unlike those shinobis, this man placed far more emphasis on the speed of his strikes, making them rather wild and uncontrolled, easier to dodge, but harder to find an opening at the same time. Still, at least the attacks were much more easily telegraphed, allowing him to duck out or under each swing easily without much effort. After all, it was not like he needed to kill his opponent, he just needed to delay him for a sufficient amount of time.

On that note, _where was his sensei?_ According to Mamoru, Jiraiya-sensei had only left to scout out the surrounding area, a task which should not have taken him more than a few minutes, half an hour tops. As such, he _should _have been back by now, and Minato hoped that his sensei would be able to make it back, considering how tired his two teammates were getting as they faced off the rest of the kidnappers.

Still, there was no reason for his sensei to take as long as he did, considering that there were no hot springs or any other distractions in the general area. Minato should know, after all, he was the one who scouted the place.

Darting underneath a swordswing, Minato finally found an opening and quickly sliced his kunai across the man's midsection. Unfortunately, the man had rather decent reflexes, jumping backwards as Minato lunged at him, as such, he managed to escape the strike with a relatively shallow cut across his chest. A wound that was not fatal enough to decide the match, but at least it still annoyed his opponent, given the grimace on the man's face.

As such, Minato was rather surprised as he watched the color draining from his opponent's features before the man beat a hasty retreat back into the forest around the clearing. Wary at the sudden change in circumstance, he glanced behind him, only to find himself grinning at the scene that he saw.

"About time, sensei." Minato snarked as he watched Jiraiya tie up the three of the kidnappers that his teammates had been engaged with. The last of their number was lying on the gound, unmoving, Minato suppressed a grimace as soon as he saw the corpse of the boy that looked only a few years older than him. Sure, he could kill people just fine, but he never did enjoy the act, unlike a few other peers that he happened to know. "What took you so long?"

"Sorry kid," Jiraiya replied, actually sounding sorry for once, "I found an entire cave system which was lying about just two kilometers out." He grinned apologetically, "I was making sure that it was inhabitable."

"Riiiight…" Minato replied, rolling his eyes.

"Was that sass?" Jiraiya frowned at his subordinate.

"Sensei!" The two turned to see Ruri waving at them, "we have a problem!"

"Shit…" Minato heard his Sensei mutter under his breath. "What kind, Ruri-chan?" Jiraiya asked.

"We only have thirty-two kids! Mamoru said that we're missing one!"

Jiraiya's reaction was instantaneous as he moved out to take a quick glance at the kids. While it may be hard to believe, Minato's sensei had actually taken the time to remember the features of each of the kidnapped children and committed every single one to memory. As such, it was easy for him to identify which child was missing currently.

"Ana." Jiraiya muttered as he finally figured out the missing child.

"Sensei, you know her?"

"Talked to her in the market of Tenmen Village a few days ago," Jiraiya grimaced, "though I don't want to admit it, I actually let her get kidnapped so that we could figure out exactly where they were bringing the missing kids."

Minato shared his sensei's expression as soon as he heard that. While such methods might be necessary to complete the mission, let it be known that Minato shared his teacher's distaste for such methods.

"Minato," Jiraiya said, breaking his subordinate out of his reverie, "I'm going to need to stay here in case any of the kidnappers come back." He gestured at the group of children behind him, "can you go and find her?"

"Of course, sensei!" Minato replied instantaneously, a little annoyed at the phrasing of his sensei's question. Was there ever any doubt that he would have done otherwise?

"Good, now go, come back here with her, you hear me?"

* * *

To be honest, Miinato was a little puzzled by his current situation. Over the last few minutes, he had managed to find this Ana's trail through the forest. However, judging from how undisturbed the surrounding greenery around the trail was, Minato could not help but feel that there was something off about this entire situation.

Not to mention the fact that he had managed to find only Ana's footprints. Originally, he had thought that the girl was stolen away while they were engaging the kidnappers. However, if he followed that line of thought, shouldn't there be another set of prints belonging to the one who had taken her away?

Another possibility would be that she had run away during the fight in fear. Except that the relatively undisturbed foliage and how 'clean' her footprints had been showed that she had been carefully walking through this section of the forest that he was in, not running off in panic.

"Eurgh." Minato shook his head to clear it of these confusing thoughts. There would be plenty of time to wonder about this later. First he had a girl to find so that his team could bring her back to the safety of her family. Seriously, he had never thought that a mission to find a missing child would quickly evolve to one the one that he was having now.

Not that he was complaining. After all, just knowing that there were Kidnappers about puts a foul taste in his mouth.

It took him another few minutes of tracking before he finally arrived at the side of a cliff overlooking the river. Kneeling down, Minato frowned as he studied the trail before him.

_This was where she stopped._ He noted as he swept his hands across a set of footprints. _Then she walked this way into…_ the edge of the cliff?

Panic seeped in as Minato realised that the trail just seemed to end at the edge of the cliff. _What happened? Did she fall off?_ Standing up, Minato walked over to the edge and peered over. _That's a long drop…_ he realised as he looked down at the river directly beneath him.

_There's no way a child could survive that fall. _Especially…

Minato dropped to the ground as soon as he heard the sound of metal cutting air, dodging a blade that was swung at him from behind by mere centimeters. In the midst of somersaulting away to put some distance between him and his attacker, Minato caught a glimpse of a red kimono that had seen better days, and a long crudely made bandage across a rather scawny chest.

"You again?" Minato muttered as he palmed a kunai.

The man did not reply, merely slipping into a guard stance with his sword as he fixed Minato with focused, but angry eyes. _Looks like he really wants me dead._ Minato realised as he crouched down, kunai at the ready.

He would continue his search later.

The two of them were still for but a fraction of a moment, before they leapt at one another. Minato ducked and jumped between the slashes of the other man, even as he slowly chipped away at his foe. Slowly, but surely, the wounds on his enemy began to accumulate as Minato scored scratch upon scratch on his opponent.

_Almost there,_ Minato thought as he jumped away from his opponent, who was now sporting a lot more injuries than when they had first dueled. _His movements should have slowed down enough for me to-_

Whatever thought the blond boy had was immediately cut off as the cliff that they were standing on violently shook. "What the-" Minato cursed as he tried to rebalance himself as the platform shook again. Seeing how the other man was also hanging on for dear life, Minato concluded that his opponent was not the cause for this situation, causing him to quickly survey his surroundings for the one responsible.

Only to stare in shock at the blond girl standing about fifty feet away from the two of them, her hands on the ground as she smiled sheepishly at him.

"Sorry." He heard her say. "Earth Release: Rock Collapse Technique."

The ground beneath them gave a mighty rumble as it cracked into dozens of boulders which began to fall into the flowing river below. Losing his footing and unable to get a proper grip on any surface that was still attached to what was left of the cliff, there was nothing that Minato could do but fall with the rest of the debris.

Then he felt something hard hit the back of his head and the world went black.

* * *

**Hey all,**

**This chapter was a pain to write, but I hope you enjoyed it!**

**Please leave a review if you have any criticism, questions or thoughts about this fic!**

**Regards,**

**Elusith**


	10. Undercover V

**I do not own Naruto, only this story and its OCs**

* * *

Gouki was not having a very good day. Being a former Kumo-nin who had sold his country's secrets to Ame, he had thought that he would be able to lead an easy life after all the thankless work that he had wrought in the name of his former village. In fact, he did get his easy life in Amegakure, at least for a while. A simple job where he was to act as one of many bodyguards to a few merchants whom Hanzo had wanted alive. The numbers of shinobi that Gouki had surrounded himself in had made him a very unappealing target to his former comrades, and so they had let him be.

And for a time, life was good, sure it was boring, but it was good. Then one day, the merchant that he was assigned to guard offered him a rather generous sum to be the middleman for a few 'illegal transactions', or in short, a job in the human trafficking business. Gouki had not really needed the money, but decided to take on the job in the hopes that it would alleviate his boredom as a glorified guard for just a little bit.

In a way, it did reduce his boredom, though now, as he lay on the ground, his lower half pinned by a small mountain of boulders, he deeply regretted the fact that he had not even hesitated to accept this task.

If he hadn't, perhaps he would not be lying under a small mountain of rocks, his lower body crushed underneath them.

_Where did it go wrong?_ He thought in an attempt to forget the pain. It was supposed to be an easy assignment. Manage a group of half-baked shinobis and bandits that the merchant had hired as they ran around Ame, kidnapping the children to meet their quota before going over to a small outpost near the borders where they would hand over the kids and receive the money. There was not even supposed to be any hostile contacts, given how the merchant had hinted at buying over the Ame administration to turn a blind eye to his activities.

So why was there a group of shinobi sabotaging the operations here? This was not the kind of operation that should have gathered the notice of shinobis of that level, especially when there was a war going on.

He would have continued his train of thought in perpetual agony if not for a sudden shadow to manifest in his line of sight. Squinting his bloodshot eyes so as to better focus on the figure to which it was attached.

His eyes widened as a rather filthy girl walked up to him, stinking of piss and who knows what else.

"Does it hurt?" She asked innocently as she knelt down beside him, causing Gouki to widen his eyes in surprise. This girl was one of the kids that his group had kidnapped from the surrounding area, why was she showing concern for him?

She probably never saw his face, he decided. That was the only reason he could think of at the moment as to why she would show concern for him.

Well, it didn't feel so bad. At least he could pass on with someone actually caring for him by his side, right?

"A… a lot." He choked out. It would seem that he was not long for this world now.

To his surprise, the girl merely smiled, a cruel grin on her face. "Good." She said, her hand lashing out. Gouki gagged as he felt something stab into his throat, only to choke on the warm liquid which flooded it immediately after.

"You know something?" The girl told him mockingly, "I hate kidnappers like you." She stood up. "Enjoy your trip to hell."

_What?_ Gouki thought confusedly, completely bewildered by what just happened.

Then he knew no more.

* * *

Jiraiya sighed as they finally managed to calm the kids down enough to get them moving again, though inwardly he was glad that he managed it without much fuss from them. Dealing with kids was never his strongest suit, that was something which he preferred to leave to Tsunade, after all.

"Right!" Jiraiya called out to his two remaining genins, "Mamoru, Ruri, we're going to start moving the kids here to a bunch of cave systems that I had found. The two of you will be bringing up the rear, so keep your eyes out for the kids. Understood?"

"Yes sensei!" The two chorused as they nodded at him. Jiraiya grinned, they were good kids, though it was unfortunate that their teammate was leagues above them.

_Though, speaking of which, where is that kid?_ Jiraiya frowned, Minato was never one to dilly dally about with his task, so why was he taking so long to find one single kid?

That was when the jounin's eye caught something on the ground. A simple tree branch, cleanly sheared off at one of its ends. As there was a fight between shinobi and bandits going on just now, one could easily justify its presence by the fact that the replacement technique was one of the three basic academy techniques. Except that he noticed one more thing.

Its position was squarely at the edge of the section of the clearing where the kids were huddled.

"Oh no…" He muttered as a thought just occurred to him. What if the girl that was missing was no ordinary girl at all, but a shinobi?

The thought may seem a little far-fetched, but the more Jiraiya thought about it, the more an unsettling feeling grew within his gut. His student might be wandering into a trap, unknowingly at that, and while Minato was a once in a lifetime prodigy that Jiraiya had the pleasure of being the sensei for, the Jounin of Konoha was not _that_ confident in his chunin's ability to be able to look out for a trap, especially one from an angle that would seem impossible.

Regardless, there was a slight chance that it might just be his imagination running wild, but Jiraiya had learned to trust in his instincts.

And right now, that was what he was going to do.

"Mamoru! Ruri!" He called out, coming to a decision. "Change of plans!"

* * *

I smirked as I walked away from the corpse of the kidnapper. To be honest, I must say that it had felt _way_ too good when I sliced open his throat, though I might have been a little worried that I was enjoying it _too_ much.

"Eh," I muttered, "I'll stop myself before I become a crazy psychopath, I suppose." That was, after all, a one way ticket to getting myself killed, the last thing that I would want to happen to me.

Anyway, now that that was dealt with, I suppose that I had to deal with the more pressing matter at hand. I sighed as I turned my gaze towards the unconscious boy that lay underneath another body, somehow keeping his head above the water level so that he would not drown when he was knocked out.

Seriously, that was either some mighty great luck or a really strong desire to live, considering the fact that he had to have propped himself out right before he had lost consciousness in the latter case.

Palming the bloodsoaked kunai in my hands, I walked over to him, weapon poised to stab at his neck and slice it open as I had done to the man before him. Though at the last moment, I had to stop as a sharp pain assailed my head.

I growled as images flashed before my eyes, showing me another boy, so similar to this boy in front of me yet definitely a completely different person. I recognized him, that boy was Naruto. The child that would save the world.

"You're related to him?" I finally spat out at the unconscious boy half-submerged in the water before me. Rubbing my forehead to ease the throbbing headache, I sighed. Those images, while convenient in the fact that they had stopped me at such a _coincidental_ time, had reminded me of something really important.

This boy. Minato Namikaze would be Naruto's father, if memory served.

Why did I have to make the important decisions?

"To kill, or not to kill?" I muttered as I danced the kunai across my fingers. On one hand, this child would father the hero which would save the world from some world-ending threat. On another hand though, I know for a fact that in the next war that was in the not so distant future, Minato Namikaze would emerge a hero from it by killing countless Iwa shinobis, thereby ending the conflict between Konohagakure and Iwagakure.

One of those shinobi might be me.

I wouldn't like that. Not at all. I'd prefer being alive after all.

Still, if I killed him now, I might be dooming this world to a rather terrifying end. A much more terrifying end, on second thought. Though what were the chances of us surviving if there was no more Naruto?

To reiterate, why did I have to make this important decision? I groaned. All I ever wanted was to live a simple, peaceful life where I had no need to look over my shoulder every second for fear of someone killing me. It was all going so swimmingly too, despite the few setbacks which I had, I was still constantly working to my goal of becoming an academy instructor.

I weighed the pros and cons of either decision _very_ carefully, but in all honesty, I didn't really like option A as much as I did option B. Where was option C when you needed it?

Sighing, I finally decided on the correct course of action. Standing up, I ran my hands through a series of seals.

_Earth Release: Lightened boulder technique. _Feeling the chakra running through my veins, I slapped the palms of my hands on the side of the boulder which the blond boy was trapped under and circulated my chakra into it. Digging my fingers into the boulder, I lifted up the object which was now as light as a feather and casually tossed it aside before dragging the future Yondaime Hokage out of the river.

"I'm making a _super_ long term investment here." I said as I glared at the unconscious boy, "don't make me regret it."

_And I'm regretting it already. _I sighed. _Better get moving before I change my mind._ After all, when you look at your priorities, I'm pretty sure that 'World Ending Threat" was much more dangerous than "Hero who killed a thousand Shinobis". Sure, I wasn't exactly clear on how the world was going to end (stupid memory sequences), but considering the fact that Naruto was an orphan, I was pretty sure that Minato had either died facing it, or before he faced it. Either way, it was clear that his son would be much, much more powerful than his father would be, considering that Naruto was the one who fought… whatever it was that he fought and saved the world doing so.

So now, all I got to do was make sure that I survived until then. Meaning that I probably got to survive Minato's slaughter of Iwa Shinobis a few years in the future.

Oh joy.

With such thoughts clouding my mind, I left the blond boy behind, taking off in the direction of Tenmen village.

Or at least, I hoped it was in that direction.

* * *

Jiraiya nearly panicked when he saw the motionless figure of his chunin on the ground and quickly rushed over, ignoring the retreating figure of what would seem to be a young girl in the distance.

There would be time enough to chase her down later, especially if his subordinate was dead. He was a Jounin, after all. The day he let some snot nosed brat outrun him would be a long time coming.

Though he saw the boy's chest rising up and down rhythmically, all thoughts of chasing after the girl evaporated as he quickly checked Minato's current state. Surprisingly, the boy was not that injured, at least compared to the corpse of the man buried under some rocks not too far off from where they were.

With the exception of a rather nasty bruise on the top of his head and a rather swollen ankle, likely a sprain, Minato actually got off quite lightly considering the state of the area around them. If Jiraiya had to guess, it was probably caused by a landslide given how the rocks were laid around them.

"And not a natural one either," he muttered as he glanced up at the cliff. Here and there he could see unnatural cracks and formations covering the side of the cliff, a clear indication that an Earth Release had been used upon it. Considering that the man was buried under the rocks and that Minato had not even begun to learn any Earth techniques yet, it would seem that it would be caused by a third party.

And Jiraiya had a stinking suspicion as to who it was.

Though that does beg the question, why was his chunin still alive? Frowning, Jiraiya tried to piece what little evidence he had gathered together so as to get a better look at the situation that had occurred here. Given the bloody manner in which the man had died, it was evident that the deed was not committed by his subordinate here, who was rather free of blood, especially since the death wound looked as if someone had sliced that man's neck.

Then there was the fact that his subordinate's clothes were soaked despite the fact that he was lying on top of a boulder. While one might say that he could have crawled up onto the boulder himself after landing in a river, given the size of the bruise on his head, Jiraiya would think it was rather unlikely. Sure he was no expert on the matter, but when one spends enough time around his hime, one inevitably picks up some knowledge on certain medical matters.

As such, unless there was another party involved, Jiraiya could only conclude that the person who killed the man over there and left his chunin here had to be the same person.

And he was pretty sure that little 'Ana-chan' was the one responsible.

So that begs the question, why did she leave him alive? The fact that she did not reveal herself to them would mean that she was most definitely not a Konoha-nin, and considering the fact that every village was pretty much hostile with their counterparts in the world now, there was no reason for another shinobi to leave Minato alive.

So why?

Jiraiya groaned as he rubbed his temple. This was not what he was expecting when he took on the offer from a distressed couple to look for their child.

"Unh…" He threw all his thoughts aside, however, when he heard Minato groaned. Rushing over to his side, Jiraiya looked at him with concern in his eyes.

"You okay, kid?"

"Uggg.." Minato tried to talk, but ended up coughing. Helping his student up while patting him on the back, Jiraiya quickly took out his canteen and brought it to his student's mouth.

"There, there. Take it easy." Jiraiya muttered, "you're lucky that you're alive, you know?"

"I...I'm alive?" Minato said groggily, before his bloodshot eyes shot wide open. "The girl!" Only to groan as he doubled over, clutching his head as he registered the pain up there.

"I told you to take it easy, kid." Jiraiya chided gently. "As for little 'Ana', I saw her leaving you, but didn't give chase once I realized that you are alive."

"W...Why?" Minato croaked out.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." Jiraiya's eyes narrowed. "And I know exactly where I was going to look."

It took Jiraiya four days to get back to Tenmen Village. While it took him much longer than he would have liked, there wasn't much that he could do about it. After all, he had to make sure that the kidnapped children were delivered back to the town where the couple was living. That had been a rather heartwarming scene, watching the two adults embracing their daughter. Thankfully, the couple were grateful enough that they offered the use of their town villa to serve as the base of operation for Jiraiya's team, at least long enough for Minato to recover and for his remaining two genins to bring the rest of the children back to their homes.

It was only when Jiraiya had ensured that the villa was secure enough, courtesy of the Fuinjutsu that he set about it, and that the situation was manageable enough by Mamoru and Ruri that he set off to find out more about this Ana kid.

And where better to start then the place where he had met her?

Turns out he struck gold on the villager that he asked. It would appear that 'Ana' did come back to this village just a couple of days ago, covered in dirt, piss and blood. Waving down the man's concern that the child was a demon, Jiraiya found himself directed to the Inn which the man had said that the child had entered.

Managing the counter was an elderly old woman who looked as if she would have been a looker in her younger days. Still, Jiraiya had no time for such thoughts, and quickly asked if the matron had seen 'Ana' passing by.

"Oh my, is that her name?" The woman replied. "Poor dear, I was really shocked when I saw her. The child looked dead on her feet when I saw her walk into this compound, and everyone here was so stunned that we immediately went to the room that she had entered to ask about her."

"Oh," Jiraiya prompted, "and what did you find?"

"The room was locked." Said the Matron, "no amount of budging and pulling could get the door open. And when we could finally force it open, it was empty!"

"I see."

"Just between you and me," she whispered conspiratorially, "I think that they might have been shinobis."

"You know what?" Jiraiya grinned back at her, "so do I."

* * *

**Hey all.**

**Got this chapter up and running. Hopefully you all like it!**

**If you have any thoughts, advice or criticisms, feel free to leave a review! And a happy Mother's day to all you mothers out there!**

**Regards,**  
**Elusith**

**Lkjfdsa321**: I actually did considered killing him off at one point, but I realized that there would be too many unknown elements after that if I do so. Still, things are going to turn out a lot different than the Canon history, or at least that was the plan.


	11. The Team I

_I do not own Naruto, only this Story and its OCs_

* * *

_Target sighted._ I thought as I walked along the dirt route. It had been a full year since I had last met the Konoha-nin on that disastrous first mission which I ever had. Perhaps I should have counted myself lucky that each of my other missions which came afterwards did not have much contact with other shinobis and for those that did, I at least had Wataru-sensei to help me out when it came to deal with them.

Well, it was more me helping sensei, but eh, semantics.

Still though, living undercover here in Amegakure for an entire year had been extremely stressful. Especially so since we were in hostile territory. I spent each day living in perpetual paranoia, afraid that I would turn a corner only to see a kunai held at my throat.

We had received a total of twenty-four assignments over the course of the past year, making this assassination the twenty fifth. Some were easily completed in mere hours, others took days and there were even a couple which had lasted a full month or two. Sounds packed, right? Well, as if that were not enough, Wataru-sensei had been 'kind' enough to pack our resting time with grueling training.

Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Taijutsu. Sensei had seemed adamant on teaching me all of them instead of specializing in a single one like other Iwa-shinobi tended to do. While this would mean that I would probably never be a master of any single technique, I could see why Wataru-sensei would rather I be a Jack of all Trades and Master of None.

It was just in the nature of our career, you see.

Saboteurs are different from any other type of shinobi specialization in that our job rightly consists of _all of them._ A saboteur was expected to be able to answer any mission, be it a rescue mission, escort, or assassination. Anything that would disrupt enemy lines was handed to us. In all honesty, it was a job that was as tough as a spy, though we tend to be the ones to receive information instead of gathering it.

Bringing us back to the present, my current mission was to deal with one Suzuga Tori, a lady who was publically known to be running a brothel in this rural Ame town. However, she was actually a rather avid supporter of Takumi Village, a village of smiths that was known to be supplying weapons to various other villages in the war, primarily those that could lack the means to produce their own or whose shinobi were lacking in skill generally and require better equipment to make up for it.\

It just so happens that most of those villages were standing against Iwa in the current War, making it difficult for us to progress on any front. As such, while Takumi Village was most certainly a prime target, the best way to deal with them would be to target their supply line.

Hence, it was decided that Suzuga Tori would need to die today. And I would be the one to do it.

Oh joy.

Unlike my usual disguises, this time I was simply dressed like a boy. My blonde hair had been dyed black and tied back into a ponytail. Freckles were painted onto my face and contacts were used to change my color. Thankfully, my chest had not developed yet(I was ten), so it was still rather easy for me to pull the disguise off with just a simple black tunic and pants for me to blend in with the crowd.

Suzuga Tori, my target, was just walking in front of me. She was a rather striking lady with quite the enviable figures, pretty much all curves and no muscles, from the look of how her kimono was wrapped around her. To be honest, I must say that I actually felt a small degree of sympathy for her as I stalked her, it was perhaps unfortunate that I had no way of preventing her from dying today.

You see, earlier on, the lady had had lunch at a teahouse. There, one of our operatives had slipped a certain poison into her food. The poison was very common, easily identifiable and very slow-acting, or so I have been told. As such, under normal circumstances, unless she could identify the symptoms and ingest the antidote before it was too late, Suzuga Tori had only hours to live since she had left the teahouse.

My job was to reduce those hours to minutes. It was so that when the Coroner examined the body, the teahouse would be ruled out as a place where she had fed the poison, seeing that she had only just eaten there ten minutes ago.

As she stopped to chat with a passerby, I casually turned to one of the streetside stalls, one which was selling Dango.

"Uncle," I said, addressing the stall owner even as I kept an eye on my target. "Five sticks of Dango please. For take away."

"Okay kid," The elderly man grinned at me and bent down, giving me the chance to pass my hands through some handseals as I pretended to reach for my purse.

The genjutsu that I had chosen to be the final nail in Lady Tori's coffin was a simple one, and relatively harmless at that. It was one that merely messes with the vision of my target, letting them see images of my own design and imagination. Terrifying images at that, that would induce anxiety and cause one's heartbeat to increase in frequency.

Generally harmless, until one takes note of the poison that was travelling in her veins.

I sent my chakra out in a small tendril towards her. Upon contact, I began to press it to interweave with her nerves and slowly crawl up to the parts of her brain which control her logic and vision. Weaving terrifying scenarios with my imagination, I forced them into her mind, letting her see them through her own eyes.

Tori gasped.

"Tori-san!" The passerby she was talking to, a bearded man dressed in a bright purple kimono asked in concern, "are you okay?" In response, I filled her ears with a thunderous debacle, making her incapable of hearing him.

She began breathing heavily as she took in what I had shown her, a terrifying scene of a lion-like beast rampaging through the town. It was not the most creative thing I could think of, but it would do for now.

"Your dango's done, kid!" The stallowner suddenly said to me, almost causing me to lose my concentration.

"Okay," I replied, straining a little to talk to him and maintain the Genjutsu. After paying the uncle, I took the proffered bag of dango with a hand while the other one hidden in the sleeve of my tunic maintained the handseal which was required to sustain the illusion.

Slowly, I walked towards the duo. The man who was talking to Tori was now panicking, waving his hands hysterically in front of Tori's unseeing eyes. Giving them only a disinterested look like any other passerby, I casually walked past the two of them.

I had only distanced myself from them for a total of ten meters when I heard a lady choke. It was a strangled cry, something that I was told would happen moments before the victim of the poison would die.

The man's cries only grew more panicked as I left the scene behind, munching on a piece of dango.

Mission accomplished.

* * *

"Well done, Yuuyake." Wataru-sensei said once he walked into my sight. To be honest, I was getting a little worried staying out here alone in the night all by myself. Not that I would ever tell him though.

I was already out of disguise and dressed in a plain red kimono with a blue obi around my waist. It was made of wool, and as such was extremely useful in keeping me warm in the middle of the freezing forest that was our rendezvous point.

To my surprise however, Wataru-sensei was dressed in Black Iwa Standard instead of the Red Iwa Standard that he usually wore, which was just a different color of the uniform, though the black one did help in keeping us undercover in the night.

Regardless of my surprise however, I quickly dropped to a knee, a sign of deference to my superior and replied. "Thank you, sensei. Do you want the report?"

"No need." He gestured at me to rise. "I saw everything." Sitting down on a nearby log, sensei shot me a grin. "So, how are you liking the Saboteur life?"

"Not really my cup of tea, sensei. But I am getting used to it." There was no point in lying to Sensei, seeing as he was the man who had taught me how to lie. Though I must say that I was putting it rather mildly when I said that.

To be completely honest, I hated this job. I mean, who would like living behind enemy lines, surrounded by potential enemies and pretty much having to always be on the move, whether it be for a mission or a matter for survival?

Oh wait, we were shinobis, it was in the job description.

No point crying over spilt milk, however. Since I was already involved in this crap, I might as well get the best that I could out of it, and that would mean not pissing off my current sensei by telling him how much I hated my work.

"Good." Wataru-sensei smiled as he waved at me to sit. "I'd be worried if you were enjoying it. Glad to see that you still kept all your marbles despite your current situation."

I would have to say that I was surprised that I was still sane too. Or at least, I think I was. Let's face it, a full year of nothing but training, killing and general destruction in a completely hostile environment would probably be the worst place to spend your childhood.

A sudden movement on Wataru's sensei side broke my train of thought. Ducking down, more out of instinct than anything else, I quickly jumped backwards, widening my distance from him. It was lucky that I did as I had, seeing how sensei's feet slammed into the ground where I had been standing just moments ago.

"Good job!" Sensei smiled at me as I landed on the branch of one of the trees around our meeting point, my poise tensed and ready to leap in any direction at a moment's notice. "Your reaction speed has improved, kid."

I squinted at him. "What was the first thing I told you when we first met outside the Recon Headquarters?" No sense taking any chances here after all. While Wataru-sensei did tend to launch such surprise attacks at me out of the blue to train my reflexes and taijutsu, we were in enemy territory, and a hostile shinobi might be taking advantage of that fact to launch a surprise attack at me and not give off any suspicion if it had failed.

"Nice." He smiled up at me, "that paranoia would serve you well, Yuuyake-chan." I prepared to launch myself into the foliage behind me. "Hey, none of that, you told me you were hyping yourself up. Now get back down here."

The verification complete, I hopped down from my perch to the base of the tree, only to reflexively catch the Bo that was tossed to me.

"Up top!" I brought my staff up to above my head, wincing as another one swung down onto it as I barely managed to hold it in place.

"Good," Sensei nodded as he withdrew his weapon, "Low sweep!" He called out, though this time I watched as his staff swung at me from down below only to suddenly stab upwards towards my midsection. Quickly, I backpedalled while swinging my staff in a wide arc before me, just managing to block the feint.

On and on we continued, and soon I collapsed onto the ground when my tired limbs could not keep up with Sensei's blindingly fast movements anymore, knocked flat by one of his attacks.

"You have improved," Sensei muttered approvingly, "but there were still plenty of wasted movements." He gave me a stink eye when he said that. "You should know that unnecessary movements with a staff would mean that you were wasting stamina, stamina that you would need if you want to win the fight."

"Yes, sensei." I gritted my teeth as I wobbled upwards, digging my Bo into the ground for support.

"Good," He smiled, "now how about that new ninjutsu that I had taught you?"

I nodded. Tired as I may be, that was the whole point. It was sensei's usual training regime where he puts me under rigorous training so that I can still operate even when assailed by fatigue.

I didn't like it one bit, but I could see its point.

Forming a tiger and then a snake seal, I stabbed my Bo into the ground, letting my chakra flow through the staff into the ground. Picturing the ground as oh so many atoms, I pulled each piece of particle in a certain radius around my staff with my chakra towards its tip. Pulling my Bo out of the ground, I displayed the perfect sphere made of rock on one of its ends at Sensei.

"Earth Release: Rock Brick Cane."

"Nicely done." Sensei nodded. "Now change shape. Hammer."

I nodded and formed a thought with my mind. Changing the shape of the clump of rock and dirt was difficult at the start, but once I had begun to picture the earth as a bunch of molecules, courtesy of memories from the past life, the whole process of manipulating the shape of the earth had became quite easy once one got used to moving the particles with chakra.

"Blade." Sensei said after he had inspected the hammerhead that I had shaped. Nodding, I concentrated and the earth flowed to form a sleek single edged blade on the tip of my staff that was probably as hard as steel.

"Lance." It changed shape again at my command, forming a huge cone this time.

"You may stop now."

I nodded and released a breath that I had not realised that I had been holding. Cutting off the flow of chakra to the clump of earth on the end of the staff, the entire chunk just fell pathetically to the ground as I stood at attention.

"Good, now on to Genjutsu."

Genjutsu was arguably the worst of the four ninja techniques that I had been taught by Sensei. Sure, I may have used it just now to great effect, but that was probably the best that I had been able to achieve even after a single year of consistent training.

Our training was simple. We stand ten meters apart, taking turns to throw genjutsu at one another, during those turns, we have to cross those ten meters and put a kunai to the other's throat to score a victory. Needless to say, Sensei easily shook off any genjutsu which I had placed on him despite my best efforts. On the brighter side though, I managed to shake off his genjutsu effects fast enough to prevent him from putting his kunai to my throat eight out of ten times.

Sure I lost to him overall, but it was an improvement to last time's measly five.

Unfortunately, Wataru-sensei's Genjutsu training was one of the most chakra intensive exercises that I had ever experienced, even counting his ninjutsu ones and any other exercise I had undergone back in the academy. So as usual, by the end of the tenth bout, I was already collapsed on the ground, the mixture of physical fatigue and chakra fatigue turning my braincells to mush.

"Well, I would like to continue, but I doubt that you can." I faintly heard Wataru-sensei say off to the side. "Get some rest then, we have a mission in two week's time, which means two weeks of training."

I couldn't even muster enough energy to answer in the affirmative before sleep claimed me.

* * *

The two weeks went by as well as they could. At least Sensei was considerate not to cover me thoroughly with bruises that would interfere with the upcoming mission. Regardless, Wataru-sensei had been anything but gentle, and I had received more than my fair share bruises. To tell the truth, it would be a long time before I could be a match for sensei, but seeing as I was just a ten-year old kid, I suppose I was doing alright, at least for a growing girl my age.

Still, for the first time in a long time, I was dressed in the good old Iwa Black, a set that Sensei had seemingly procured out of nowhere. I was really puzzled when I first received it and somewhat concerned by how sensei had managed to get one of my size, especially since I had grown quite a few inches since the last time I had my details question had lingered on the tip of my tongue at the time but I ultimately decided against it.

Some things were better left unknown, after all.

"Today we are to meet with a team dispatched by the Iwa Recon Division." Sensei told me as we perched on the trees above the area that had been our training ground for the past two weeks. To be honest, I must say that I had done quite a decent job in restoring the area back to its natural state. Well, sure the soil might feel loose in some areas, and the patterns on some trees might be a little too neat to be natural, but those were details that one wouldn't notice unless they were specifically looking for it, so I suppose I should get a pass for what I have done.

Not that anybody frequents this area. We had spent two weeks training in the centre of this forest in Ame, and given that no one had been spying at us from afar, it would seem that this forest was as desolate as they come.

No wonder Ame was chosen as a battleground for the second shinobi war, they barely even have enough shinobis on their own side to patrol their own land. Quite literally a Shinobi paradise, if I might say so myself.

"Any information on the team, sensei?" I asked.

"They would be a small one, probably even composed of rookies like you." Sensei replied, then he grinned, "though you might like this next piece of news better, when the mission is completed, we would be rejoining the main force."

_Really?_ I nodded. No more skulking around behind enemy lines and actually being surrounded by friendlies as we encroached upon enemy territory?

Not much of an improvement, but I suppose it was better than what I got now. I mean, you weren't exactly safe wherever you were fighting in a war, after all.

"When will they be arriving, sensei?"

"Sometime soon, actually." Sensei replied as he leaned against the trunk, "get yourself comfortable in the meantime and enjoy what little rest you can get." His eyes twinkled just a little, "considering the last two weeks, I think you would need it."

Well, far be it for me to say no to some well earned shuteye. _Especially _with the hellhole that I had been through the past two weeks. Seriously, Wataru-sensei had literally no chill within his training sessions. Sure, he might seem like a chill guy now, but when it came to teaching me what he knows, he was very _brutal._

It took awhile before a small crack of a twig, just barely audible, reached my ears. My eyes springing open, I reflexively reached for the Bo on my back, only to retract my arm when Wataru-sensei waved me down. Glancing down at the clearing, I could just make out four figures creeping along the foliage at its edges.

Given how unconcerned with them that Wataru-sensei was, they were probably not hostile. Or he could under a genjutsu, in which case I was fucked.

That turned out to be not the case, however, as one of the figures crept into the clearing, revealing himself in the standard Iwa Red. It was a black haired boy which looked just a little older than me, and seemed a little familiar, probably from the same graduating cohort, but a different class, I suppose.

He motioned at the other figures behind him, giving the 'all clear' signal. Slowly and quietly, they moved into the clearing, barely disturbing any of the greenery around them as they did so. If not for the snapping of the twig earlier, I might even say that they were as good as me.

All of them were kids my age, dressed in the standard Iwa Red. Apart from the first boy, there were two brown haired girls, who looked alike enough that I was willing to bet that they were twins, and another boy who looked as if he was just a giant pile of muscles.

Then a fifth figure walked into the clearing so casually that I might have missed him. Dressed in a purple kimono and with a growing red beard on his face, with how relaxed the man was in contrast to the apprehensive aura given out by the kids as they looked around, I might have written him off as harmless if not for the fact that I recognized who he was.

Roshi of the Kamizuru Clan, the Yonbi Jinchuuriki. He was lauded as one of the best jounins around Iwagakure, and might have been a contender for a spot among Iwagakure's shinobi council if not for the fact that he was a Jinchuuriki.

Yeah, Jinchuurikis were also ostracized in Iwa, though it would seem that they were allowed a greater amount of freedom than their counterparts in the other villages. Who would have thought that Iron-fisted Iwa would be much kinder to their human nukes than some of their more benevolent counterparts?

Roshi walked into the clearing, flanked by the four children before flashing a look at me, or it may be at Wataru-sensei, but I tensed at the glare regardless. There was something primal and heated in that glare that made cold sweat run down my back, though before I could do anything about it, it vanished, allowing me to take a deep, silent breath to calm my nerves.

At least Wataru-sensei seemed to be getting a kick out of this whole situation, given how he was grinning from ear to ear as he perched on his branch. Shaking my head, I gestured to sensei.

_Go down now? _I signed.

_Stay put. _Came the reply.

Huh, that was curious, but I followed the order regardless. Returning my gaze to the four children milling about on the ground floor, I started taking notes.

Firstly, there were four genins and one Jounin, the usual Iwa squad setup. Obviously, the Jounin would be the team commander and the heaviest hitter of the group. The two girls were very coordinated in their efforts as the team scouted out the surrounding area (presumably for us), they were probably very close, not surprising, since they were probably sisters. The black haired boy, however, seemed to be the weakest link, given how he kept wandering a little bit too far out from the group without sounding out to his teammates, a sign of carelessness or confidence. Thankfully, the other boy in the group had enough sense to cover him as he moved out of formation, though that would make him the most obvious target, seeing as no one was covering him. That meant that he was either really confident in his skill to stay on the lookout, or that he had a really big heart, which would probably get him killed sooner or later.

"Found them yet?" The black haired boy suddenly whispered. I frowned as I heard him, it wasn't especially loud, but considering the fact that I could hear it, albeit unclearly, meant that any enemy in the vicinity would have heard it as well. Idiot, he could at least communicate in code.

I was also willing to bet that he was the one who snapped the twig earlier on too.

The others at least have enough sense to glare at him and reply in code, tapping way too softly that I had to strain my ears to even make out the sound, though I could not make out the rhythm, given how inaudible it was.

A sudden tap on the tree we were perched on drew all attention in the vicinity to it however, and I watched as Roshi gestured at his team to gather around the roots on which he was sitting.

"I must say," I heard him tell the children, "that I am very disappointed in all of you, especially you, Sato." The black-haired boy cringed, "what were you thinking, speaking as loud as you did? You would have given away our position to the enemy if there were any here at the moment." He flashed a glare at the other three. "And while the three of you aren't any worse, the fact that you have yet to even notice our allies despite the fact that they were hiding in plain sight is just embarrassing…"

"On that note," he glared at us from under the tree, "come down now, we need to start the briefing."

"Well, since he asked so nicely, we couldn't really say no, can we?" Sensei grinned as he stood up, and with a single leap, jumped into the middle of the clearing, landing lightly with his feet facing the group. Sighing, I quickly followed suit, touching on the ground next to him, though I had to use a little chakra to soften my landing.

"Wataru, Jounin Saboteur." Sensei introduced himself with a smile, "reporting for duty."

"Yuuyake, Genin Saboteur." I followed, though I forgoed the smile, "reporting for duty."

"Roshi, Jounin Scout." The red-headed man nodded before gesturing to the four kids around him, who were all looking at me and sensei with wide eyes. "This is my team. Introduce yourself." He ordered.

The girls were Haruna and Hiei, though it was somewhat difficult to tell them apart since I was right in assuming that they were twins. Sato was the name of the black haired boy and the last one introduced himself as Monga. True to what I had thought, the four of them were in my graduating cohort back in the Iwa War Institution, though they were from a different class and had all been drafted into the Recon Division like me.

"Now that we have all been gathered, I shall start the briefing." Roshi said as he pulled out a Sealed Scroll. To this date, I was not exactly sure how the scroll worked, but it was typically how secretive missions were handed out to the teams. From what I had worked out, I had gathered that there was a certain process to opening it, and if the process was wrong, the scroll's interior would be erased. Even if one got it right however, they would only have minutes to read the content before the scroll itself disintegrated.

It was kind of an indication about how distrusting Iwa was, even of its own shinobi. I could live with that paranoia though, it was what kept me alive all this time, after all.

Pulling the string free from the scroll, Roshi gripped it lightly in his hands as he made a handseal with the other, a process where the user sends their chakra into it to 'pick its lock', so to speak. After a second, he pulled it open, gave the contents a quick scan before tossing the scroll to Wataru-sensei who quickly read it.

Surprisingly though, sensei passed the scroll to me afterwards and I quickly got over my shock to skim through it, just barely getting to the end of the mission instructions before it reduced itself to dust in my hands.

At least it didn't stick to my clothes though. It was hard as hell to get them cleaned in enemy territory.

"Right," Roshi said as he addressed us all, "our mission is simple but important, first of all, we will be splitting ourselves into two teams for this assignment."

I nodded absentmindedly in agreement. Having already read the scroll, I pretty much knew what he was going to say. Naturally, the two Saboteurs would be in one team, while the Scouts would form the other one, forming the two teams needed to complete the objectives of this mission simultaneously.

"I'd be pairing up with Wataru for the first team." Roshi continued, "The second team would be led by Yuuyake, I expect the four of you to follow her orders to the letter." He told the remaining kids.

I nodded agai- Wait… I blinked.

WHAT?

* * *

**Hello all!**

**Hope that all of you are staying safe and sound during this period of chaos. Also, if you have any thoughts or criticism on this chapter, feel free to leave a review!**

**Stay Safe,  
Elusith**

* * *

**Replies:**

** Blaze2121: **Well, as to the answer for your first question, there's currently no Love Interest Targets for Yuuyake here. Haven't actually thought that far yet. I suppose it would be something I would want to leave for when the characters are much more developed. As for the rest of your concern, I suppose I should just say not to worry about that, she would definitely get a certain training regime down the road, though that would probably be bordering on spoiler territory, so let's leave it at that hahaha.


	12. The Team II

_I do not own Naruto, only this story and its OCs._

* * *

_If there's a god in this world, I hate it._ Were my thoughts as I watched over the four kids that were sitting among the roots of the tree. Perched among its branches, it gave me not only a decent cover but also a great vantage point so that I could look out for any approach in… most directions.

It was also close enough to the ground that I could hear the conversations that the kids were having beneath me without having to strain my ears.

The four kids were just talking about mundane stuff. Hopes, dreams and all that junk that would not help them stay alive in the ongoing war, with the occasional complaint mixed in. Not that I would disapprove of them doing so, though I would prefer it if they weren't so relaxed in enemy territory. Especially since our Senseis had gone ahead to set up their camp at the other end of the town.

Still, what were they thinking? Putting me in charge of this lot was pretty much a recipe for disaster. For the past one year, I had barely any _proper _social interaction with anyone else outside of Wataru-sensei and the occasional civilian.

So what were the two adults smoking that they both decided to let the one with the least social understanding to be in charge of a bunch of snot nosed brats?

Well, I suppose that it wasn't all that bad. At least they haven't begun to badmouth me. Yet. Hopefully never.

I sighed as I settled down comfortably among the branches, assuming a posture which would provide some comfort and also allow me to launch myself off the branch wherever the situation called for it. The night was young, and given how tired the four had been, I had 'generously' volunteered for the first through third watch, an offer that the other kids had enthusiastically agreed to.

Like all other kids however, they don't tend to sleep when they were told to and were instead chatting away nonchalantly like they were on a field trip.

I did my best to ignore them, but in the end found myself listening to their conversation. Perhaps I should be concerned that they were talking loudly enough for me to hear them from my perch on the tree, but to be honest, I was bored enough to overlook that.

Besides, if worse comes to worse, I could always abandon them to whatever enemy which saw fit to come to this god forsaken place.

"-er Roshi is really getting on my nerves." One of them was complaining. Sato, I presume, given what I could remember of the voice. "I mean, he didn't even give us any time to rest!"

"So?" One of the girls replied in a monotone voice, I believe she was the one called Hiei, sounding pissed. She probably didn't really get along well with their Jounin Leader, not that I would blame them, considering how cynical he had been of them the night before. "It's not like we can say anything…"

Grumbles and mumbling assent erupted from beneath me, making me smirk in amusement as they began complaining about their past missions. Sounds like they really had it out for Roshi though, given how vehement they were with their insults when it came to him and his tasks.

"So…" The other twin, Haruna piped up, "what do you think about Yuuyake-chan?"

I perked up at the mention of my name. Was this really happening? With me in hearing range?(Not that they know it)

"Mmmmh, she's cute." Monga commented.

_Flattering_. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah yeah, but I'm not talking about her looks though." The girl muttered excitedly, her voice slightly muffled for some reason. "I mean, she's our age, but she's a saboteur!"

"_Apprentice_ Saboteur." The other girl corrected. "She's still a genin."

"Yeah, but isn't that like an elite course in our division?" The first girl continued excitedly, "that means that she's really good right?"

"She better not boss us around though." Her twin replied, "I have had enough of Roshi-sensei's criticism for about a month."

"I don't think she would do that." Sato interjected. "I mean, she did seem nice enough, volunteering for the first two shifts of guard duty so that we can rest more."

"Yeah, that's nice of her." Hiei conceded begrudgingly. "Though with that being said, we should probably sleep. Wouldn't want her good intentions to go to waste."

Mumbles of assent arose from the rest and the few of them exchanged a few more words before silence finally descended upon the campsite.

The quiet was nice, though I admit that I had forgotten how tired I had become of it now that the chatter below me had ceased. With nothing better to do, I began to ran my mind through the mission details even as I scanned my surroundings for any movement.

It was a simple mission. There was a town, we were to get into the town and find a merchant. Then we kill the merchant and get out. Except that there was a high chance that shinobis would be contracted to protect the man that we were told to assassinate. As such the two jounins decided to form ourselves into two groups, one for distracting his bodyguards, and the other aimed at killing the man himself.

Three guesses what role my group was supposed to perform. Now, if any of your guesses includes the word 'bait'. Congratulations.

It was a cruel but extremely efficient choice on their part of planning. With both jounins having decent experience with such missions, it stands to reason that having both of them to take on the task of assassinating our target would indeed provide the team with the highest chance of success. While this would mean that the other team which comprises only of genins would pretty much be screwed over should we meet any jounin level opponents, one must remember that genins were, in the end, expendable. Sure, we may have had a certain degree of training invested in us, but compared to the vast experience and skill that each Jounin possessed, losing five genins as a distraction on a mission would be easily deemed an 'acceptable loss'.

Not that the jounins told us that to our face, but any person with their heads not filled with some colourful fantasy and actually possessed an inkling as to what a shinobi was expected to do would have immediately understood what they had intended with this setup.

In short, I was the only kid in the entire team that was not whooping with joy when we had heard from the sensei that we were receiving our first B-ranked.

I could have sworn that Wataru-sensei was silently laughing at me when he noticed the look on my face.

Regardless, a mission was a mission, and it wasn't like I could refuse it when my sensei had accepted it for both of us. Still, having to take care of as many as four kids during the course of this mission would be quite the feat. Not to mention that this was pretty much my first mission as a team leader, so it would be quite a damaging stain if anyone did die on my watch.

_And it just keeps getting better._ I grimaced as I followed that train of thought. Such a stain would pretty much be a permanent black mark on my career as a shinobi in Iwa. While something like this might seem trivial, it would be extremely damaging to those who intend to climb up the ranks.

Like me, but mostly because the safer jobs were all only attainable once one had passed the rank of 'Cannon Fodder' (Genin).

In short, not only do I have to babysit a bunch of kids my age but without my own taste for cynicism, but I also needed to make sure that none of them would die if I was to keep my shinobi portfolio without blemishes.

Great. Just great. Whatever could go wrong?

* * *

"Hiya!"

I cracked open an eye and looked in annoyance at the openly grinning face of one of the twins, the one who had her brown hair wrapped back in a ponytail as opposed to the letting it flow. Considering her look and how excitable she was, it must be Haruna.

"Yes?"

"It's morning," She smiled, "just wondering if you want to have some breakfast with the rest of us."

Breakfast? I blinked before mentally shrugging. "Sure."

"Right! Come on down then!" She flashed me a thumbs up before dropping down the tree. Stretching abit as I flexed my stiff limbs, I quickly followed suit.

To my utter surprise and approval, the campsite was nothing like what I had expected the kids to turn it into. The wilderness was left mostly intact and untouched, with sleeping bags placed in areas that would not disturb the surrounding foliage. More astonishing was the fact that instead of using a proper fire to cook the food, a common mistake that most shinobi had to learn in the field, for some unbeknownst reason, the kids actually remembered to use heated charcoal to cook our morning meal which were wrapped in aluminium foils.

_Looks like these kids actually have some experience. _I thought, my mood brightening at the thought.

"Took you long enough."

Turning around, I faced the other twin who was scowling so hard that she looked as if something nasty had crawled up her ass and made its nest there. Mentioned girl was crouched over a small pile of heated charcoal as she gave me a glare.

Had I offended her at some point in my life before?

"Hi." I said lamely, to which she merely nodded before returning her attention to the food in front of her.

Huh. That was rather rude.

"Don't mind Hiei." Haruna said as she came up beside me, "she's always like that." she grinned at me apologetically.

"Right." I muttered.

"Yeah, it's like Haruna-chan sucked out all the optimism from Hiei when they were in their mommy's belly." A third voice interjected, I turned around only to see Monga stretched out rather lazily on the ground as he chortled. "You'll get used to it."

"Like you got used to me kicking you in the face?" Hiei said as she punted a couple of wrapped rations about the burning charcoal with a treebranch. "Shut up or I'll give you a new black eye to worry about."

"Hiei! Stop it." Haruna whined.

Meanwhile, all I did was to look at the scene before me in confusion. Did these kids even know how dangerous it was for the group of us here? How were they even able to act so carefree in hostile territory?

Thankfully, I was spared from that train of thought as Hiei ignored her sister and merely announced that the rations were properly cooked.

Breakfast was a simple affair, with salted potato, bread and plain water. The five of us gathered around the smoldering charcoal, eating in silence. Still, being kids, the quiet was not to last. In fact, I was a little perplexed. I had thought that they would ask me abou-

"So, which class were you from, Yuuyake-chan?"

That.

I looked up from my meal at Haruna, who had asked the question. "In the academy?" I frowned, trying to recall, it had been so long that it had felt like a distant memory to me already. "Class C I think? I was in my second year when I was drafted."

"Second year?" Monga mused as he set aside his food, a thoughtful look on his face. "Wait…" He looked at me, causing me to squirm a little uncomfortably under the intensity of his stare. Then his eyes widened as though he had an epiphany and he pointed at me.

"You're the girl that the Trio keeps talking about!"

_Trio?_ I raised an eyebrow in confusion. In contrast to me however, the sentence garnered rather 'interesting' response from the remaining kids, save for Hiei who was still munching on a ration biscuit, appearing completely uninterested in the conversation.

"Hold up," I raised a hand as they unleashed a barrage of unintelligible words at me. "_Who_ keeps talking about me?"

"Ah, the Trio. They are our seniors in the Recon Division." Haruna clarified as she held up a hand, "Kakkou, Mahiru and Taiseki." She listed as she counted them off her fingers.

"Oh them." I made a face. "What about them?"

"What about them?" Sato sounded almost incredulous at my reaction, "They are the best genins of their year! They already finished way more missions than any of the other genins in their cohort!"

"Oh," I nodded, "That's impressive." In truth, I had half expected them to wind up dead within the first few missions or so.

Not bad.

"Wow." Haruna exclaimed in wonder, "To think that we actually get to meet the blond bit-" only to have her mouth quickly covered by Hiei's as the color drained from the other two boys in the group.

_So they're still holding a grudge against me, huh? _I shook my head in exasperation, having already guessed the word that the three of them had probably used to describe me back in the division. Seriously, how immature could they get?

"Uh," Sato mumbled, "Is it true that you know Kitsuchi-san?" he blurted out in what was probably a poor attempt to change the topic.

"Yeah, we were classmates." I replied, having no intention of dwelling on the previous topic. "Why do you ask?"

"Then by any chance have you met the Tsuchikage himself?" He asked, eyes sparkling.

"Nope."

"Awww." He whined, looking for all intents and purposes like a dejected puppy.

"Oh come on Sato!" Haruna smacked him on the back of the head. "Why are you so fixated on some crotchety old fart anyway?"

"You take that back!" Sato shot back, "the Tsuchikage isn't some crotchety old fart. He's the strongest shinobi in our village!"

Ah. He's one of those 'Loyalists'.

"You should have more respect for those of the Kamizuru lineage, Haruna." Hiei admonished.

To be honest, up till now, I had never really understood why people in Iwa revere the Kamizuru clan so. Sure, they were _the _founding clan for Iwa, and in accordance with the cultures in the Land of Stone where only Noble Families could possess surnames, were pretty much the only recognized clan of shinobi by the Daimyos. Still apart from that, I never really did understand why certain people even recognize them as 'exceptional' shinobis merely because they were part of the family. I mean, there were less than forty recorded Bee Users left in Iwa, despite the family's size being way over a couple hundred at the current point, according to Kitsuchi, if I recalled the last conversation we had regarding his, and I quote, 'Useless Bloodline and Stupid Clan'.

"Yeah, yeah." Haruna pouted. "They have my respect..." She muttered dismissively. "I just don't like how they keep using their names like its some kind of stupid badge…"

I glanced at Monga, who was observing the scene before him quietly, giving him a questioning gaze. Grinning back understandingly at my confusion, he mouthed, 'Institution.'

Well that explained jack shit.

"Haruna." Hiei sighed, finally showing an expression other than a scowl, "the Kamizurus are the Rulers of Iwa, it would not do to provoke them."

"I still don't get why you all seem to worship them like gods though." Haruna groused, shooting a glare at Hiei and Sato, "It's not like the name even means anything! What's so great about becoming one of them anyway?"

"Becoming one of them?" I spoke up, causing all eyes to fall upon me. "Like marrying into the family?"

"Well, that's one way of doing it…" Hiei made a face, "But no. Not doing that, at all." Her tone alone made it quite obvious what she thought of the idea.

"Actually," Sato interjected, "the Kamizuru clan is known to recruit people from outside the clan into their ranks."

"Really?" I looked at him, an eyebrow raised. This was the first that I heard of it.

"Uh... um… I heard from Roshi-sensei, actually." He added sheepishly.

Huh. It actually makes sense, to a certain degree. It might even be why a clan of traditional bee users was so diluted with shinobis from other bloodlines, with some even exhibiting other bloodlimits. And now that I think about it, it might be why the Kamizurus were able to continually hold their power over the shinobis of Iwa.

After all, it was one way of increasing the clan's overall strength and ensuring that the people would stay loyal to them.

Still… it didn't have anything to do with me, does it? I was just a kid, trying her best to survive in a war. My goal was simple: Do my best in the upcoming conflict, at least well enough that I could guarantee myself a proper future after the war.

No point in getting myself mixed up in a dream that had no guaranteed safe returns.

* * *

**Hey everyone, Elusith here.**

**Been a while since the last update. Mostly because I was busy working and also doing some fleshing out with the characters. Which was why this chapter is kind of stale. Still, I hope you enjoyed the story so fa**

**Hope you all are safe during this hectic period, and if you have any thoughts or criticisms, feel free to leave a review!**

* * *

Replies:

raychii521: Yes, he is. Though he is not a bee user. As I have stated in this chapter, the Kamizurus are the founding clan of Iwagakure, but that the number of Bee Users were declining. Anyways, the clan is something that I would be focusing on heavily in this story, mostly because in this setting, they are _the only_ clan in Iwa.


	13. The Team III

_I do not own Naruto, only this Story and its OCs_

* * *

"Hey," Wataru muttered as he took another sip from his sake cup, "what do you think that the kids are up to now?"

"Sleeping," Roshi replied flatly.

The two Iwa-nins were in civilian wear, touring the town of Tatsuki in preparation for the assassination ahead. Or at least that was what Wataru had said while dragging the Yonbi Jinchuuriki to all the tourist spots in the district.

In his defense, he was actually checking out prime locations for their missions, but surely it would not hurt to actually enjoy himself while he was working, right?

That said, Wataru sighed as he gave his companion a stink eye, would it kill his 'drinking buddy' to at least show a bit of levity at such a rare opportunity to slack off? Seriously, he had half a mind to believe that Roshi was made of wood at the rate he was going.

_Whatever._ Wataru shrugged as he poured himself a cup of sake from the bottle he had recently purchased off a street vendor. It was cheap stuff, but it tasted good enough that he was willing to overlook it, especially considering that he was unable to discreetly put aside a portion of Yuuyake's mission funds for his own usage this time.

Wataru smiled as he thought of his protege. The little girl had been quite the find, to be honest, being a child soldier that had met his standards rather nicely. Flexible in her thoughts, and a quick learner, she was easily one of the best genins that he had seen in a long while that came out from the Institution.

_Well, hopefully she survives the war._ He joked morbidly. Genins were notorious for their exceedingly high death rates, even in peacetime. It would be a pity if she had died during the course of the war, but then again, there was nothing that he could do about it. After all, this was war, and people tend to die in them by the hundreds.

_Speaking of which…_

"So, what about your kids?" He asked his moody companion. "Any of them catch your eye?"

"One of the twins." Roshi replied curtly. "And the big one. The other two might not make it." He flashed a glare at Wataru, "now, are you quite done? That should be enough 'sightseeing'.

"Right, right." Wataru waved his sake bottle dismissively. "Still, is there anywhere that you'd want to have a look at first?" He grinned, "not everyday we get a day off."

"I'm quite done." Roshi muttered frostily. "And we should really start focusing on our job instead of fooling around."

"Fine, fine." Wataru sighed as he eyed the Jinchuuriki. "Sheesh, lighten up, would you?"

Instead of replying, Roshi merely snorted, before folding his arms and moving away. Sticking his tongue out at the offending undercover shinobi, Wataru quickly poured out another cup and downed it, hoping that it would be enough to help him wash away his distaste for his fellow Iwa-nin.

Unfortunately, it wasn't and to make matters worse, Wataru could feel the effects of the alcohol slowly working its way into his senses. It wouldn't do for him to drink anymore, especially in enemy territory. And the fact that his fellow Jounin who was overseeing the mission would probably file a complaint or two if he turned up drunk back at the inn.

Seriously, he had heard stories of the Jinchuuriki being uptight assholes, but he had never known it would be this bad.

"Damn..." Wataru lamented as he stared at the sake bottle. He really couldn't wait for this mission to be finally over. Raising his cup, he tried to take a sip, only to stumble as he felt someone bumped into him, causing the liquid in the cup to spill out onto the ground.

It took most of Wataru's self control not to instinctively move into a combat stance and to instead lazily turn towards the culprit and say, "What'd you do that for?" It took _ALL_ of his self-control for his face not to show any recognition as he laid his eyes upon the other person.

"Sorry," the offender muttered, bowing slightly to Wataru in apology. Wataru nodded and shrugged, pouring out another cup as he turned away from the man. Sadly, Wataru could not savor the alcohol as much as he would like to, given what he had just discovered.

_Looks like things just got a lot more complicated. _He thought grimly. _Guess this job won't be as easy as I had hoped._

* * *

Alright, I'd just say it. The weather in Ame totally sucks. Each day was nothing but rain, rain and more rain, it was like a god took a look at this place and decided that 'raining' should be its default setting. And the temperature was making the entire experience ten times worse. Normally, one would expect a place that was constantly raining to be cool and refreshing. Ame was anything but, what with its humidity and moderate temperature, the forests of Ame were not only wet, but incredibly stuffy.

One would think that I would have gotten used to this after living in Ame for a few months. Sadly, that was not the case.

As such, there were currently five very uncomfortable kids sitting about in the treetops, with a makeshift camo tent above us keeping us dry from the rain as we awaited the day we would finally get to move to the village to enact our plan.

Which I was waiting for in unbearable anticipation, primarily because trying to keep the civilian clothes in our possession dry was an absolute nightmare in this weather.

Also, there was one among our number that really wanted to test my patience with her incessant chattering.

"So," Haruna had said as we huddled together in the treetop tent on the first night. "Introductions!"

"Introductions?" I raised an eyebrow quizzically

"Sorry about this." Monga mumbled apologetically. "It's a Haruna thing."

_Yeah, totally helpful with that explanation._ I brooded as I turned back to the excitable girl who was quite literally in my face.

"Yeah yeah! Likes, dislikes! Dreams!" Haruna pumped her fist towards the sky repeatedly. Inwardly, I was rather thankful that she wasn't that loud to give our position away.

_Not a bad suggestion, though. _Still, I must say that I was not exactly comfortable with sharing my information with others. Wataru-sensei had always said that information was a powerful weapon, after all.

"Do we really need to though?" Hiei complained as she propped herself up from lying down on the floor. "I mean, it's not like we need to know."

"Come on Hiei!" Haruna whined at her twin. "We don't get to do this often!"

"Because Roshi-sensei thinks that it's a waste of time." Hiei countered, "Sides, it's not like we don't know each other that well-"

"She doesn't!" Haruna pointed at me in such a manner that I was left confused if I should be offended by the gesture.

Hiei opened her mouth as if to protest, only to sigh rather depressingly. "Fine."

"Yes!" Haruna cheered before she turned towards me. "Right, I'll go first! Name's Haruna, genin scout. I like good food and spending time with my friends and I hate people arguing with me! And I want to be the best Kunoichi in Iwa!" Giving me a grin, she quickly gestured at her sister who immediately sighed.

"I am Hiei, this idiot's sister." Haruna flashed her twin a rather hurt look which was subsequently ignored. "There's a lot of things I like, and a lot of things I don't like but if I have to choose… I guess I like reading, and I hate noisy people. My dream… I wish to join the Kamizuru clan."

_Wow, that's one way of being direct._

"I'm Sato," the black haired boy stammered quickly, even though no one was paying attention to him, "uh… I like learning new jutsus and… um… I don't really like the people who bully me back in the institution… and I also wish to join the Kamizuru clan!"

"Monga," the last member of the group spoke up. "I like training, and I hate lazing about. My dream is to join the Explosion Corps."

"You have the bloodlimit?" I asked, my interest piqued. While the ability was not exactly rare, but

"I don't know." He replied, "I haven't been tested yet."

"Right, right!" Haruna muttered, waving her hands to get our attention. "Now, it's your turn!" She muttered excitedly at me. "Likes, dislikes! Hobbies, dreams!"

If I could have taken a step back, I would. Sadly, if I were to do so, I would be stepping out into the rain. That alone was enough to dissuade me from that course of action. As such, all I could do was to look helplessly at Haruna as she all but shoved her face in mine, grinning like a cheshire cat as she did so.

And I wasn't about to get help from the rest of the team either, what with them all looking intently at me with expectant gazes.

"Right." I muttered as I gave up, suppressing my instinct to shove a kunai in Haruna's face for getting too close to me.

Uncomfortable or no, it would be rather impolite of me to withhold basic information about myself when my team for the foreseeable future. Besides, I could always just share the parts that weren't sensitive or classified.

I hope.

"Name's Yuuyake, Age ten. I…" _Like not being in the risk of death. _"Like good food, hate unwinnable missions and I want to become an Instructor at the Institution." _Primarily so that I wouldn't need to be sent out on missions. _I might have skimped out on the hobby part, but that was promptly ignored thanks to Haruna's reaction.

"Seriously?" Haruna asked incredulously. "That's it? Just an Instructor at an Academy?"

"...Yes?"

"But that's boring!" She exploded in my face. Metaphorically. "I mean, an Institution Instructor? That's Chunin level, at best! A-And you're a Saboteur, surely you are on the Jounin Track?!"

_Am I though?_ I wondered as I shrugged. "I like to start slow."

"Nothing wrong with that." Hiei muttered, giving a very pointed look at her sister, who very conveniently ignored her sibling in favor of staring at me with a judging look in her eyes.

"But, but surely you got better dreams, right?"

_I want to reach a ripe old age of seventy without having to worry about what tomorrow would bring._ I shrugged, declining to reply.

That day had ended with Haruna bugging me incessantly about what my actual dreams were. Needless to say, I was unsure of what exactly to think about the current circumstance. On one hand, it was just harmless talk, on the other… it's just extremely _annoying._

And she just kept up her streak of questions each day, without fail. Stopping only when her sister told her off(which wasn't as often as I'd prefer), and when she had to eat, sleep or conduct her private business.

I'd only hope that my sanity would be able to survive this.

* * *

The appointed day could not have come sooner. In fact, I was more surprised by the fact that I was able to resist the urge to stab Haruna in the face to shut her up.

"It's time." I muttered as I stood up signaling to the rest of the team, all of whom held grateful looks as they shared my sentiments regarding this humid and plainly uncomfortable forest to be having a camping trip in.

Our civilian wear that was provided for this mission consists of a bunch of kimono with mismatched colours and a couple of umbrellas. Give or take a few minutes, and the five of us would not look out of place as kids wandering about in a town.

Or at least, I hope so.

The trip out of the forest was uneventful, thankfully and we made our way into Tatsuki without any trouble, with no one in particular that was willing to pay attention to five children huddling under a couple of umbrellas walking down the street, the three girls under one, and the two boys under the other.

"So, where are we headed?" Hiei asked softly, somehow being able to make herself heard over the ruckus the rain was making around us.

"A dango shop." I muttered back as I recalled the instructions that Wataru-sensei had left me. "There should be a rather famous one around here, according to sensei. Follow me."

"I don't think that this is going to work though." Haruna whispered as she scrunched up her nose, "we smell weird."

"Do we?" I flashed a questioning look at her.

"I mean, we haven't showered for days!" She complained. "Of course we smell weird! We probably won't even pass for proper townkids if someone took a proper sniff at us. I mean, come on, what kind of parent would let their kids go on for a few days without a bath? Ours didn't..."

_Not wrong._ Except that there was almost no way for us to actually have a bath right now to get rid of that stench. I suppose that it must have been quite bad, considering that I had barely noticed it at all until Haruna spoke up.

"Well, it's not like we can hop in a river and get out right now." I shrugged, "let's just try to make do and try not to attract attention." _After all, it's not like we can do anything about it now. _Thankfully, Haruna did not really make a fuss about the entire thing and merely settled for a grumble here and there as we slowly explored the town.

It did not take us long to find the Dango store, a quaint little place by the name of proprietress of the store was a kindly, motherly woman by the name of Tae who warmly welcomed us into her establishment without a fuss.

Soon enough, the group of us were finally enjoying our first proper warm meal (snack?) in about a week. Or at least I was sure that I was, good food always trumps field rations, after all. Those were sickeningly bland, and I was not talking about the biscuits.

Unfortunately, the taste of the good food was soured a little when I found a small note stuck to the bottom of one of the Dango plates. Sighing, I quickly plucked it free and skimmed through its contents before crumpling it and stuffing it into the obi of my Kimono.

"What is it?" Hiei asked.

"Finish up." I replied, as I picked up the last stick of Dango on my plate and stuffed it into my mouth, savoring it as much as I could. "It's time."

"You okay?" Sato asked, concerned. "You don't look so good."

Given what I had just read? I'd be lucky if this wasn't my last meal on this earth.

* * *

**Hello all!**

**Past few month had been quite hectic, what with jobs and projects and Corvid-19. Thankfully, I finally got most of my schedule under control, so I'd probably have more time to write for this fanfic and improve(hopefully). Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter, and thank you for reading!**

**If you have any thoughts and criticisms, feel free to leave them in the reviews!**

**Sincerely,**  
**Elusith.**

**P.S. I'd try to catch up with answering the reviews in the next chapter. Sorry about that!**


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